Friday, September 18, 2009 – Grizzly bears are considered a threatened species again according to environmental groups in Canada.
Greg Bell and CEO of Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society stated that any species under 1,000 is considered to be threatened according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. “You need more than 1, 000. If it falls below that, you should list them as threatened and anything below 250 the species should be listed as endangered.” Bell and said.
The government study that was done counted 581 grizzly bears from south of Grande Prairie to the Montana border.
It has taken 5 years to obtain the count of the bears and it is the most accurate tally of the number of grizzlies living in the Alberta area to date. This information will be used to make the government’s management plan for the bears after a review of the study is done next year sometime.
A spokesman for Sustainable Resource Development, Dave Ealey stated that until then no decisions will be made.
“We’re not going to make any kind of a speculation as to what the status will turn out to be. We have to go through this process like we do with all other species.” Ealey said. He went onto say “The area from Highway 16 North to Cut Bank River, which is just south of Grande Prairie, that area had a total of 353 grizzly bears which is a healthy population.”
Ealey stated that they mapped about 3.7 million hectors of grizzly habitat in Alberta a secondary habitat of 2.5 million hectors examining at the access and quality of the areas of the bears.
The Alberta Wilderness Association has stated that it is time to label the grizzlies as a threatened species and they will go into depth of looking over the report of the 5 year research.
