Grizzlies facing disaster, warn conservationists

First it was the giant panda, then the polar bear, now it seems that the grizzly bear is the latest species to face impending disaster.

A row has erupted in Canada with conservationists desperately lobbying the Government to suspend the annual bear-hunting season after reports of a sudden drop in the numbers of wild bears spotted on salmon streams and key coastal areas where they would normally be feeding.

The Government has promised to order a count of bears, but not until after this year's autumn trophy hunts have taken place. It has enraged ecology groups which say that a dearth of salmon stocks may be responsible for many bears starving during hibernation.

"I've never seen bears hungry in the [northern autumn] before, but last year they were starving," said British Columbian wildlife guide and photographer Doug Neasloss. "I noticed in the spring there weren't as many bears coming out, but I felt it was premature to jump to conclusions." But now, he said, "there just aren't any bears. It's scary."

It was the same story, he said, from other guides over 16 rivers where once they would have been encountering dozens of grizzly bears. "There has been a huge drop in numbers. I've never experienced anything this bad." Reports from walkers, who monitor salmon streams across the territories, have been consistent, said conservation group Pacific Wild - no bears, and more worryingly, no cubs.

"There are just no bears out there, I'm hearing that from every side now," said Ian McAllister from Pacific Wild. He said that because a few grizzlies have been wandering close to centres of human habitation people thought there were plenty of bears around. "It's the shortage of food that's driving them into town. They're starving," he explained.

In one river alone, the Fraser on Canada's west coast, 10 million sockeye salmon were expected back to spawn there this summer. Only one million turned up. Canada's Ministry of Environment announced in July that it would ban hunting of grizzly bears on an additional 470,000ha, bringing the protected area for grizzlies and black bears to 1.9 million hectares.

The news came after wildlife campaigner Jane Goodall added her voice to the campaign against the hunts, which are for trophies, not meat. "I'm very distressed and shocked that the bear hunt - grizzly bear and black bear - is continuing in a country like Canada," she said.

Only 1000 grizzlies remain in the contiguous US, where they are protected, but the number is less clear in Canada and Alaska, where they are prized by hunters who shoot hundreds of the 350kg giants every year, providing a lucrative income for provincial governments that license the hunts.

But a senior biologist with the US National Wildlife Federation said the evidence remained anecdotal and called the reports alarmist.

Bears would not starve so quickly because of the decline in salmon while there were other food sources, such as berries, around, Sterling Miller said.

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