[HN Gopher] One pioneering grizzly and her two cubs appear on Va...
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One pioneering grizzly and her two cubs appear on Vancouver Island
Author : abscond
Score : 50 points
Date : 2024-10-04 23:36 UTC (23 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (hakaimagazine.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (hakaimagazine.com)
| AlbertCory wrote:
| I've been up REAL close to grizzlies, on Kodiak Island [1].
| However, that has a population of 13,000 [2], whereas Vancouver
| has 840,000, according to that article.
|
| That means on Kodiak, the bears have the land mostly to
| themselves, and humans aren't much of a threat to them. You
| wouldn't try this in Yellowstone, where fatal bear-human
| encounters happen regularly. And probably will on Vancouver, too.
|
| [1] https://albertcory50.substack.com/p/travel-disasters
|
| [2] https://usafacts.org/data/topics/people-
| society/population-a...
| wk_end wrote:
| It's important to distinguish "Vancouver" (a city on the
| mainland) and "Vancouver Island" (an island off the coast).
|
| Vancouver Island has a population nearing a million, but half
| of it live in the greater Victoria area, which occupies a tiny
| little peninsula and change on the southern tip. Most of the
| island - which is huge, approximately four times the size of
| Kodiak Island, for what it's worth - is pretty wild and
| untamed.
| AlbertCory wrote:
| I'm sure, but the question is, do the populations intersect?
| Looking at the map, I see three Provincial Parks up in the
| north, plus towns and roads. That will mean vacationers will
| encounter them.
|
| Whereas on Kodiak, there is nothing on one side of the
| island.
| WillyWonkaJr wrote:
| I think it's time that we start to make room once again for
| the animals we almost drove to extinction. This would be a
| good, controlled setting to see if we can do this
| responsibly.
| AlbertCory wrote:
| How is Vancouver "controlled"? The grizzlies can
| obviously swim back to the mainland if they don't like
| it.
|
| > we almost drove to extinction
|
| In the Lower 48, yes. Not in Canada and Alaska.
| tastyfreeze wrote:
| For good reason. Brown bears eat people. You are no more
| than a slow meal to them. Coexistence means accepting
| that people will be eaten by bears or bears will be
| killed by people defending themselves. I think it is
| worth noting that native tribes prepared for war if the
| needed to kill a brown bear.
| mistrial9 wrote:
| > Attacks on humans, though widely reported, are
| generally rare.
|
| Brown bears prefer salmon to geezers who talk big, for
| certain.
| LilBytes wrote:
| Might make for an interesting development on future seasons of
| Alone if Grizzles become a common presence on Vancouver Island.
|
| My understanding of read materials so far is the amount of work
| gone into the program to risk profile danger was incredible, the
| change in risk profile of the addition of Grizzles on top of
| wolves and black bears would be quite an adjustment.
| grecy wrote:
| My Yukon buddy was the safety officer/local guy when they did
| alone up on great slave lake in the NWT.( near Yellowknife)
|
| He hung around all the time with his hunting rifle and a 12
| gauge loaded with slugs to make sure nobody got eaten.
|
| He got in trouble for sharing smokes and giving fire to the
| contestants a few times.
| dghlsakjg wrote:
| They have done at least one season in Interior BC where
| Grizzlies are present. They have also done seasons in northern
| Canada where within range of those predators as well.
| pvaldes wrote:
| They will need to watch very carefully for any negative
| relationship with the endemic Vancouver Island Marmot, that only
| lives in a couple spots in the Island. In this case, those bears
| will need to be captured and moved out of the Island again.
| Grizzlies have the rest of N America to live.
| steve_adams_86 wrote:
| The marmots are in so few locations and in such small numbers,
| it seems exceedingly unlikely that it would become an issue. It
| would be awful if it was a problem though. The marmots have
| been having record years, and their recovery is really just
| beginning.
| pvaldes wrote:
| 1) Grizzlies are known to ear marmots if they can catch them.
| Those bears are able to move big stones. One bear that would
| specialize on open the tunnels and chase the rodents on their
| nests, could trigger the demise of the wild population in
| months or weeks. Even before we could notice it.
|
| 2) Bears will compete for the same fruits and resources in
| autumn and have big appetites. Marmots need those fruits to
| survive winter.
|
| 3) Vancouver Marmot societies can collapse suddenly if the
| number is reduced, because they need a minimum number of
| watchers for protection while the other eat.
|
| The risk simply doesn't worth it at this moment. Professional
| advice should be relocation of the bears until the marmot
| situation improves and creates a minimum number of
| individuals that would act as a safety buffer. Those bears at
| least should be radiotracked ASAP and followed by Biologists
| and specialized workers. That would be the minimum action
| required. If they enter on the area with marmots they must
| go. Prioritizing safety of the critically endangered animals
| over the common species is the correct decision.
| steve_adams_86 wrote:
| I agree they should be tracked, absolutely. I should have
| specified that I wouldn't expect it to be an issue in the
| short term. Eventually they would almost certainly
| interact, though at that point hopefully the marmots will
| be established with stable populations.
|
| I also agree that prioritizing endangered species is the
| right decision here. We have more than enough bears on the
| island. We don't really need to ensure grizzlies stay in
| the mix at the moment, haha.
| AlbertCory wrote:
| I have kinda mixed feelings on this. Protecting an
| endangered species against human hunting, habitat
| reduction, or other unnatural dangers makes total sense.
|
| But what's unnatural about grizzlies? Were they introduced
| onto the island by man? Nope. For that matter, the bears on
| Kodiak -- how did they get there in the first place? They
| have plenty of salmon so they probably don't need to eat
| marmots, if there are any. But maybe they wiped out other
| species we don't know about.
|
| What are you going to do to protect them against other
| natural predators? And why not introduce them into other
| suitable habitats, like we've done with wolves in the US?
| Then we wouldn't be so dependent on one island.
| skwb wrote:
| My wife and I went to Tofino (on Vancouver) this last summer
| where you can rent a boat for a tour of the coastal black bears.
| Very highly recommend it.
| jacobaul wrote:
| (As a local) it sounds weird to say "on Vancouver" without the
| island part. Vancouver means the city. If you want to sound
| cool you can say "the Island".
| vavooom wrote:
| Super cool! I love Vancouver island - normally visit Campbell
| River where I used to have family. Always wanted to make it to
| the west side for Tofino or the West Coast Trail.
| grecy wrote:
| I hope you made a stop in Hot Springs Cove.
|
| That place is magical.
| blindriver wrote:
| How would they avoid inbreeding and genetic mutations if only a
| single bloodline existed there?
| AlbertCory wrote:
| I think the grizzlies will take care of that on their own.
| Either some bears from the island will swim to the mainland, or
| vice versa.
|
| Note: don't ask for a link on that. I just suspect animals
| prefer not to mate with their siblings.
| pentamassiv wrote:
| The article says "As the first known female grizzly on
| Vancouver Island, she could be the progenitor of an entirely
| new, self-sustaining grizzly population--the first in as many
| as 12,500 years".
|
| They might be waiting for a long time for other bears to come
| hi-v-rocknroll wrote:
| Note that Vancouver Island has absurd numbers of black bear but
| pretty much or at zero brown bears until now.
|
| I'm wondering if they're u. a. stikeenensis, gyas, dalli, or
| merely the terribly-named horribilis.
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