Bears on RFMA

[pikeslayer22]

Hey guys just wondering if you need a bear hunting license to shoot bear if your a holder of an RFMA....the way I read it is you can shoot but not trap 6 on the lines north of the Red Deer River...is your RFMA a license all you need?

[uke hunter]

You got it!

[pikeslayer22]

Thanks Uke.

[Marty S]

Save the caribou... Shoot your black bears!

That was the message on here from a biologist recently. He stated that wolves were mistakenly being blamed as the sole predator of caribou calves in the caribou range. Perhaps if you have a line that falls in that area you could help out and harvest your bear limit?

[Bigmountainrider]

Marty, Do you have a link or contact to the research? I would like to read their findings.

Z

[Marty S]

From a recent thread on the wolf cull...

Originally Posted by nicaragua

This is Bob Stewart and maybe I can help explain the story.

This is a rather complex story that unfortunately gets simplified ad thrown into a wolf controller vs wolf protector forum very easily.

I a a 66 year old field biologist. For many years I was moose research biologist in Saskatchewan going back to the 1970's and early 80's. In those days we did not have access to a lot of high tech radio collars, GPS location technology, and Geographical Information Systems, and pleased ourselves by passing a lot of time in the bush. A very sweet life.

We were having problems with low moose calf survival in those days in the Cumberland Delta- a lowland expanse on the border of Sask and Manitoba. My years in the bush revealed that during the calving season we had a lot of bears roaming around and very few wolves. Wolves not too keen about walking through water, but bears did not care so had this idea bears were likely killing moose calves. So in 1982 and 1983 we took the bears out of 300 km2 and low and behold calf survival doubled. We have no idea of the percentage of bears we removed but it was about 10 animals/100 km2.

Years later (2000) I was in Alberta and attended a caribou meeting and listened to the scientists talking about wolves killing caribou, and suggested to them the pattern of mortality they were describing was more reminiscent about bears than wolves, and asked if anyone was researching bears and the answer was no. I then left the country till 2008 and in 2010 picked up the story and was amazed to see Alberta was still on their wolf agenda. So I began to dig into the published research. I am not talking about whether I like or hate wolves or bears but about the literature that blamed wolves for something I thought bears were doing.

I knows many hunters want to blame wolves for almost everything and I do not argue wolves kill ungulates- that is how they survive. But caribou represent a very different story, and any hunter worth his/her salt will recognize that you see a lot of moose/deer/elk compared to caribou when you are hunting in the boreal forest. The reason is twofold. First there are very few boreal caribou in alberta- LIKE ONLY 2500 compared to like 120000 moose, 200,000 bears, 7000 wolves, 26,000 elk and god knows how many deer. In areas where caribou and wolves cohabit the population densities are about the same including upland habitats.

However, boreal caribou inhabit bogs. There numbers are about 1-2 animals for every 100 square kilometers. In this same area you may find 1/2 wolf for every 100 square kilometers and up to 20 bears, or 40x the number of bears.

The caribou calving season is 6 weeks long (May 15-June 30), but in this time only about 1/3 of the calves born will be alive in July. Now you have to think real hard here to figure out what is happening. Wolves do not live in bogs, but prefer uplands. The science of dozens of publications states that caribou isolate themselves from wolves. In May the alpha female is having pups and is tied to the den. She often chooses bogs to have her pups to isolate herself, but tends to hunt easy prey like beavers that are tied to riparian habitats. Caribou cows on the other hand hide away deep within bogs, and the probability of a caribou meeting a wolf is very very low. And remember there are not enough caribou to become a species that wolves can afford to pay attention to.. One beaver provides 5X the nutrition of a scrawny little caribou calf.

But, at the same time of year we have bears, recently out of their den from winter hibernation looking for something to eat. Remember, bears are omnivores and survive on plants a lot more than meat, but they cannot resist a tasty little meal. We do know that about one third of bears will move into bogs in the spring time in search of early green up vegetation like horsetails and sedges. This is important as caribou also like this fresh spring food. This provides an opportunity for bears and caribou, particularly cows with calves to interact with bears in the same vegetation rich patches. So bears can follow mom in hopes of an especially nice meal which may lead them to a calf.

Research in many parts of Canada have shown bears are pretty darned good at finding caribou calves. In Newfoundland 2/3 of calf mortality is due to bears. In Quebec they showed that 95% of predator-killed calves were victims of bears and only 5% wolves.

I am not discussing here whether wolves kill ungulates- of course they do, and this has led to many wolf control programs in the history of wildlife management. I am not here to debate that. My issue is the wolf culling programs in Alberta in the name of woodland caribou management. The Little Smokey is the single example to date of such control efforts. Ten years of wolf culling resulting in the death of 1000 wolves and the sacrifice of a couple of hundred moose, elk and deer as strychnine baits has resulted in a population of two less caribou, and based on this the government and university biologists behind these programs feel justified to kill more wolves, moose, elk and deer. They are claiming success.

i am not only a biologist, but also a hunter. But first I use my head. This program has not worked well and wolves from surrounding habitats have invaded the Little Smokey year after year from surrounding habitats. When you break down the social structure in wolf packs you release a breeding potential that is spectacular.

The biologists in Alberta went into this program as a 2-3 year control effort in which they thought the caribou population would be released. This has failed. But they have failed to understand what is actually happening. Wolves are not killing caribou calves and there is not a single published incident of a wolf taking a caribou calf in Alberta. Alberta researchers have studied wolves and caribou for decades while completely ignoring the most numerous and effective predator of calves- black bears.

This is really a story of human stupidity and does not warrant the debate about whether wolf killing is good or bad- in the case off woodland caribou it is a travesty, a waste of money and waste of time. In addition the use of poison to control wolves is not good. i care not whether you agree or not, but dying by strychnine is not a sweet death weather you be a wolf, wolverine, lynx, fox, coyote, raven, eagle or whatever chews upon the carcass of a bait.

The story does not end here however. The government has also sponsored trapping programs within caribou habitats that have killed hundreds of non-target species, In addition to those mentioned above we can add cougars, moose, deer, bears, and even caribou dying in foot snares.

For me the worst part of this is the reality that we can probably make headway with bears without killing them. I have been involved in private research which essentially means $125000 out of pocket with an associate of mine to evaluate whether we can effectively deliver aversive conditioning to bears that may be useful to reducing the impact of their predation on caribou calves. The government of Alberta refused to even meet with us to discuss the pros and cons of such an approach in 2013.

I would advise people here to get a bit more involved than to simply whine. How long would it take you to simply write a note to the Minister responsible for this to be accountable. Ask them directly what their policy is towards woodland caribou management in Alberta and whether or not they have considered bears as the potential primary predator of woodland caribou calves and has this been reflected in their funding of bear research in Alberta. IF HE SAYS YES YOU WILL KNOW the depths of deception.

The power really lies in your hands but you need to be responsible and unemotional in your communications. if you do not stand up and accept that whining in an opinion blog is sufficient action on your behalf so be it. I for one will continue in my battle for truth and respect for wildlife.

This problem exists because of our pursuit of resources and human economy, and in my books, the beneficiaries have the money to foot the bill for solutions.

I will happily attempt to answer any questions you wish to pose to me, but be respectful

We need to keep this info afloat

[Marty S]

Let's see, I like the gist of the article. However a few things... death is never pleasant, whether by poison, bullet(s), traps or natural causes. It's not bad, death for animals, it's not pleasant, it's just "Harvest".

I am in favour of consumptive wildlife use. Lets use the bears and the wolves and not waste them, and have more caribou. Win, win, and win. However I am not in favour of wasting money and valuable resources as "making headway without killing bears" for $125,000 as without guaranteed results strongly suggests. Pay the registered trappers to go and manage the bear population down will likely attain the desired end result and save a pile of money, without taking chances based upon extremist human emotion, and if they dont do it, get someone in who will.

Also, I am in favour of reducing wolf numbers, for the purpose of caribou survival in the other seasons, in particular the winter when the tasty little beavers are under the ice and the over populated wolves seek alternate food sources.

Perhaps we just need to be able to trap a few bears in this province, like ya, with traps, footsnares, snares. Would be a good time and save money.

Did I open Pandoras Box? Lotsa open topics. Hope it's okay that I hijacked this thread!

I didn't hijack this thread to make anybody look bad, just wanted to raise some bear awareness for the RMFA trappers and promote a purposeful bear harvest.

[pikeslayer22]

High Jack away Marty! I have no love for bears and intend to put a hurting on them. Would love the chance to Snare/Trap some also...havent checked but whats the going price on the bear pelts?

[nube]

I would shoot a bunch on my line but I think they are only worth $125 at most and if anyone has skinned a bear for taxidermy will know it will take a Min of 4 hrs just to skin it properly let alone fleshing and all the rest of it. They take up a bit of space as well when boarded. I might give it a go this spring if I feel up to it and see how it goes but I wouldn't look forward to it that much