Conservationists are raising alarm about the highest human-caused death toll of Alberta grizzly bears since the provincial government suspended the grizzly hunt three years ago.

By accident, self-defence or other means, people killed 19 grizzlies last year, up from nine in 2007, according to data Alberta Sustainable Resource Development released late last month.

Carl Morrison of the Action Grizzly Bear alliance said the statistics suggest the ministry needs to do much more to prevent more losses in the iconic creature’s dwindling population.

“Obviously that’s fundamental in recovering the species: that we gain more bears than we lose each year,” Morrison said today. “And with the numbers of bears we saw disappear last year, that’s not the case.”

The province began its grizzly recovery plan in 2007, and has been mapping our the bear habitats so it can define where it should limit car and human access. It has also launched extensive education programs to curb human-grizzly conflicts.

Morrison said the studies are happening too slowly and the guidelines are too lax.

Last year’s human-related grizzly mortalities were the most since 2005, when 10 of the 24 deaths were by licensed hunters in the last year of the legal grizzly hunt.

In 2008, six grizzlies were put down because they were posing risks to humans, another six were killed in self defence, and four by accident. Others were killed by aboriginal subsistence hunters, in an illegal kill, or for unknown reasons.

By Jason Markusoff, Calgary Herald
Photograph by: Mark Stachiew