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Anecdotes about grizzlies not on par with science, groups say

Sustainable Resource Development Minister Ted Morton says he will use scientific data along with anecdotal evidence collected by guides, hunters and ranchers to decide whether to continue the four-year moratorium on hunting grizzly bears in Alberta.

Morton told a convention of the Alberta Fish and Game Association on Friday that the testimonials of outdoorsmen are at odds with preliminary results of a five-year, $2-million scientific study that suggests there are less than 500 grizzly bears left in the province.

"How many grizzly bears are there in Alberta? We don't know," he said in a speech to several hundred hunters and fishermen. "We'll bring these two groups together to compare notes."

Morton later said he expects to make a decision by the end of the year whether the grizzly bear hunt will resume.

He said a Wilmore Wilderness group has created a video, in which he appears, and a databank recording grizzly sightings in the foothills area west of Red Deer.

"The Wilmore Wilderness group says that people who have spent a lot of time in the back country are seeing a lot of bears where we

didn't see them before," he said.

Morton, a former University of Calgary political science professor, conceded the anecdotal evidence "is not very scientific, but still empirical enough to use."

Critics said there is little to no value in using anecdotal evidence in conjunction with scientific DNA testing performed by biologists.

"This is wholly irresponsible," said Jim Pissot, director of the Defenders of Wildlife Canada. "It's a slap in the face to the men and women who have worked for five years to put this comprehensive study together.

"For the minister to put anecdotal evidence on par with the province's own work is embarrassing. It reaffirms our concern that this province has no intention whatsoever to recover Alberta's grizzlies."

He said the speech was "absolutely shocking" and that if grizzly bear advocates had been in the room "there would have been shoes in the air."

Robert Barclay, a member of the now disbanded 15-member Grizzly Bear Recovery Team that presented a bear recovery strategy to the province in 2007, said anecdotal evidence can't be tested and there's the risk that people are seeing the same bear repeatedly or mistaking black bears for grizzlies.

He said he has faith in the study conducted by bear biologist Gordon Stenhouse.

"My own opinion is the scientifically most sound data are those collected by the Stenhouse group using DNA techniques," he said. "I trust those data. I would be very cautious about using anecdotal data to tell us about bear numbers."

Nigel Douglas, a conservation specialist with the Alberta Wilderness Association, also expressed concern about the use of anecdotal information, saying it doesn't bear any resemblance to the quality of data collected in the five-year scientific study.

"The scientific work being done is superb," he said. "It's quite cutting-edge work. What we're not doing is using that work to make our decisions."

Douglas also questioned the minister's appearance in the Wilmore Wilderness video that contradicts the evidence collected by his department.

"It's unfortunate from our point of view that he's in the video which is being used to question the science," he said.

The province created the Grizzly Bear Recovery Team in 2002 after its Endangered Species Committee recommended that grizzly bears, then thought to number about 1,000, should be declared a threatened species. The team presented a draft plan to government in 2005 and a final plan in 2007, but aside from the moratorium on grizzly hunting, few of its major recommendations have been implemented.

Morton said the team has suggested areas of core grizzly habitat must be protected from unauthorized motor vehicle access. More detailed plans for limiting access to those areas will be circulated for feedback next fall and finalized by spring 2010, he said.

Pissot said the government has been dragging its feet while grizzlies are dying.

"This government was warned by its own endangered species committee that grizzly bears qualified as threatened seven years ago and during the intervening time there has been neither habitat protection for grizzly bears nor has there been a moratorium on additional bear habitat destruction," he said.

"While we've talked about making things better, the government has deliberately allowed things to get worse."

dhenton@thejournal.canwest.com