Relationships between human industrial activity and grizzly bears

Publication Type:Journal Article
Year of Publication:1990
Authors:McLellan, BN
Journal:International Conference on Bear Research and Management
Volume:8
Pagination:57-64
Date Published:1990
Keywords:Ursus arctos
Abstract:

Most grizzly bears (Ursus arctos) live outside parks and reserves and often have to contend with, among other things, resource extraction industries. These activities can affect individual bears and therefore populations by: 1) causing strong, energetically expensive reactions by bears that disrupt their normal behavior, 2) displacing bears from areas of human use, 3) altering habitats in which bears live, 4) disrupting the bears' social system, and 5) industrial personnel killing bears or increasing mortality rates indirectly by improving access for hunters, poachers, other resource users, and settlers. Grizzly bears are able to adapt to many habitat changes and a temporary increase of human presence. In most cases, increased motorized access that results in a long term increase of human activity and/or settlement with consequent increase in bears being shot is the most significant aspect of industrial developments. If an industrial activity is conducted with adequate guidelines to maintain important habitats, properly locate camps, incinerate garbage, restrict use of firearms, and close motorized access after the job is complete, the bear population probably will be maintained at a satisfactory level. Although many bears may be alive when an industry has completed its work, if access remains intact, the grizzly population is placed in a precarious position and may decrease in size and eventually be extirpated. Closing access after job completion is often physically and politically difficult. Industry personnel and government managers must take leading roles in planning, advertising, and implementing road closures. Cumulative effects models have been built to predict the impact of human activities on bear populations. These models are in early stages and require data to support the coefficients used and the relationships between coefficients. Then they should be tested. One significant variable the models lack is the potential for a specific activity to be the seed for blooming additional and perhaps more harmful developments.

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Scratchpads developed and conceived by (alphabetical): Ed Baker, Katherine Bouton Alice Heaton Dimitris Koureas, Laurence Livermore, Dave Roberts, Simon Rycroft, Ben Scott, Vince Smith