Each year in the province, several people are attacked and injured or killed in encounters with both black bears and grizzly bears. These numbers have been increasing as both the number of people and the number of bears steadily increase.
• BC Conservation Officers now receive nearly 12,000 problem bear complaints annually.
• The trend of bear attacks is increasing as both the numbers of bears and people increases.
• More females and cubs die in problem bear control.
DECREASING HARVEST
INCREASING BEAR PROBLEMS
Increasingly conservative hunting regulations have reduced the number of legally taken grizzly bears over the past decade. As the legal grizzly bear harvest has decreased the problem bear kill has increased. Most problem bears are shot and of those that are translocated at least 50% die immediately and most will eventually die of starvation or be killed by resident bears protecting their territories.
All graphs are taken from Ministry of the Environment figures (2001).
