By John G. Woods and Bruce N. McLellan
March 2000 In May 1994, the West Slopes Bear Research Project (WSBRP) commenced fieldwork to investigate several major questions concerning the status of grizzly bears and black bears in the Yoho-Golden-Glacier area of British Columbia. The 5,000 km2 project area included trail-less wilderness, multiple-use lands, a major transcontinental transportation corridor, small rural settlements, and an urban area (Golden). About one half of the WSBRP study site w as within national parks and the majority of the remainder on forested provincial lands. This study area was chosen to reflect the range of land uses found in bear habitat in this region of British Columbia.
| Figure 1: The Rocky Mountain Trench in the centre of the West Slopes Bear Research Study area. Note Columbia River on left, the Canadian Pacific Railway, the Trans-Canada Highway, a secondary road, and series of small developments. Glacier National Park is about 15 km west and Yoho National Park about 15 km east of this site. Parks Canada Photo |
The project was conducted in partnership with following agencies: Columbia Basin Fish and Wildlife Compensation Program, the Friends of Mount Revelstoke and Glacier, the Grizzly Bear Conservation Strategy (BC), the Ministry of Environment, Lands and Parks (BC), the Ministry of Forests (BC), Parks Canada (Glacier, Yoho, Kootenay, Headquarters), Forest Renewal (BC), the Southern BC Guides and Outfitters Association, the University of Alberta, the University of British Columbia, and the University of Calgary. Principal research questions included: How can the bear population size (N) and trend be estimated? What is the mortality rate of grizzly bears?; Are there barriers to bear movement between the Rocky Mountains and Columbia Mountains?; How do bears use habitat within the study area?; What impact are human activities having on bears in this area?; and, What happens to "problem" bears when they are moved to new areas?
With the main fieldwork for the project now completed, WSBRP is focusing on data analysis and presentation of the results in the scientific literature. Highlights related to technique development and study questions include: 
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| | Figure 2. Black bear (left) and grizzly bear (right) entering a DNA hair-trap. West Slopes Bear Research Project Photo. |
use of the number of individuals identified on the DNA hair-trapping grid and GIS base maps to investigate ecological and human factors influencing the distribution of grizzly bears at several spatial scales (Apps 1996) use of WSBRP data on bear mortality illustrating a relatively high mortality rate (0.09) for female grizzly bears in areas dominated by the mountain parks although few bears were killed within park boundaries; this underscores the need for park managers to work cooperatively with adjacent land managers to reduce total bear mortality (McLellan et al. 1999) cooperation with the East Slopes Grizzly Bear Research Project to investigate the core security area concept for adult female grizzlies across the landscape between Golden to Kananaskis Country (Gibeau et al. submitted) species and sex differences in use of habitats adjacent to major transportation corridors: black bears used these areas more and female grizzly bears used them less than expected. This information will be useful in corridor planning and vegetation management (Munro 1999) grizzly bears select avalanche chute habitat types (Munro 1999) after release, "translocated" grizzly bears have huge home-ranges compared to "wild" bears and appear to be exploring; a number of these translocated bears became problem bears again and were either destroyed or translocated a second time a DNA-based grizzly census of the area identified widespread abundance of black bears and a more limited distribution of grizzly bears with few grizzlies at low-elevation sites in the Rocky Mountain Trench (Woods et al. 1999) at the time of capture, the oldest bear s in the study were a 30-year old female black bear and a 25-year old male grizzly bear; the maximum age for a male black bear was 19 years and for a female grizzly bear 21 years the combination of DNA based techniques and radio-telemetry allowed individual bears to be tracked for up to 6 years.
For example: - female grizzly bear 0078 was translocated from the Revelstoke landfill to the WSBRP area in 1994,
- she was radio-tracked until 1995 when she lost her collar,
- in 1996 she was identified in a DNA "hair snare" near her release site, and
- in 1999 she was recaptured after killing livestock near Golden and translocated to a new release between Donald and Mica.
Because she had lost her ear-tags by 1999, she could not have been positively identified without DNA fingerprinting Work is on-going in preparing scientific papers on a variety of topics including: - a grizzly bear density estimate for the study area and a comparison with techniques currently used by provincial agencies,
- multi-scale spatial analysis of ecological and human factors that influence bear distribution,
- bear use of avalanche path habitat,
- bear diet reconstruction using molecular isotope analysis of bear hair,
- a detailed security area analysis for Mount Revelstoke and Glacier national parks for use in Park Management Planning,
- a detailed analysis of grizzly bear genetics for use in determining fractures in bear habitat;
- a detailed analysis of the fate of translocated bears,
- refinements on DNA monitoring protocols including degradation of DNA in the free-environment,
- a detailed mortality/recruitment analysis for the study area alone, and
- a detailed analysis of black bear population genetics.
We anticipate that the majority of data analysis will be completed in 2000-2001. A final report based on scientific papers will be available in 2001-2002. In the interim, project updates are available on the Columbia Mountains Institute of Applied Ecology website and there will be a major conference on Managing for Bears in Forested Environments" to be held in Revelstoke, BC 17-19 October 2000 that will present data from WSBR Theses, Papers, and Major Reports Using West Slopes Data Apps, C. D. 1996. Multi-scaled analysis of factors influencing grizzly bear distribution in the upper Columbia River drainage. Westslopes bear project. Revelstoke, B.C. Gibeau, M. L., S. Herrero, B. N. McLellan, and J. G. Woods (submitted). Managing for grizzly bear security areas in Banff National Park and the central Canadian Rocky Mountains. Ursus. Hobson, K.A., B.N. McLellan, and J.G. Woods.2000. Using stable carbon (13C) and nitrogen (15N) isotopes to infer trophic level relationships among black and grizzly bears in the Upper Columbia River basin, British Columbia. Canadian Journal of Zoology 78: 1332-1339. McLellan, B., F. Hovey, R. Mace, J. Woods, D. Carney, M. Gibeau, W. Wakkinen, W. Kasworm. 1999. Rates and causes of grizzly bear mortality in the interior mountains of British Columbia, Alberta, Montana, Washington, and Idaho. Journal of Wildlife Management: 63: 911-920. Munro, R.H. 1999. The impacts of transportation corridors on grizzly and black bear habitat use patterns near Golden, B.C. Masters Thesis. UBC Paetkau, D., L. P. Waits, P. L. Clarkson, L. Craighead, and C. Strobeck. 1998. Empirical evaluation of genetic distance statistics using microsatellite data from bear (Ursidae).Genetics 147:1943-1957. Wenzelides, Ludger. 1998. Bedding sites of Grizzly Bears (Ursus arctos horribilis) and Black Bears (Ursus americanus) in avalanche chutes and adjacent timber Zoologisches Institut der Technischen Universität Carolo - Wilhelmina zu Braunschweig (Thesis) Wittenberg, Verena 1998. Grizzly Bear Selection of Microsites for Digging Erythronium grandiflorum (Yellow Glacier Lily) Bulbs. Zoologisches Institut der Technischen Universität Carolo - Wilhelmina zu Braunschweig (Thesis) Woods, J. G., D. Paetkau, D. Lewis, B. McLellan, M. Proctor, C. Strobeck. 1999. Genetic tagging of free-ranging black and brown bears. Wildlife Society Bulletin 27:616-627 Appendix I. Work In-Progress Multi-scale analysis of distribution and abundance A scientific journal paper in preparation in cooperation with Clayton Apps (contractor), analyses using DNA grid data for grizzly. First draft due March 2000.
Multi-scale analysis of habitat selection. A scientific journal paper in preparation in cooperation with Clayton Apps (contractor) using radio-telemetry data for grizzly bears. Draft due April 2000.
Habitat Use/Avalanche Chutes. In cooperation with Roger Ramcharita, UBC Master's degree candidate. Thesis scheduled for completion in 2000..
Habitat Use/ Transportation Corridors. In cooperation with Robin Munro. UBC Master's thesis complete (1999). Scientific paper in preparation (2000).
Bear Density Estimates. In cooperation with John Boulanger (contractor) A scientific paper in preparation (March 2000). This work will compare methods of obtaining density estimates and make recommendations for long-term monitoring and management needs. Tony Hamilton (MELP-Victoria) will provide estimates using standard MELP methods for comparison.
Bear Diet Quality. In cooperation with Keith Hobson of the Canadian Wildlife Service, Saskatoon. A paper has been submitted to the Canadian Journal of Zoology. A principle finding was that animal protein in bear diet (as reflected by isotopes in hair) was highest in translocated grizzly bears and lowest in wild female grizzly bears. Black bears of both sexes and male grizzly bears were intermediate.
Hair-DNA Degradation in Outdoor Conditions. In cooperation with Curtis Strobeck of the University of Alberta, Edmonton. Samples are currently being analyzed. Preliminary findings should be available shortly.
Black Bear Genetics. In cooperation with Colin Reynolds, Master's candidate, University of Alberta. 1996 DNA census samples and all capture samples have been analyzed. Paper will be presented at the 7th Black Bear Workshop, May 2000, Oregon.
Security Area Analysis - Cumulative Impact Assessment. In cooperation with Mike Gibeau, a paper has been submitted to Ursus. Concurrently, John Woods applying the technique to Mount Revelstoke and Glacier including a parameter sensitivity analysis.
Translocated Bear Analysis. Currently in prep. John Woods will present this at the October "Managing Bears in Forested Environments" conference.
Grizzly bear population genetics. In cooperation with Michael Proctor, Ph.D. candidate, University of Calgary. Scheduled for completion in 2002 Although the research will focus on West Slopes data, the analysis will include the entire Kootenay Region, Alberta, and Montana.
Bear Morphology Analysis. Not yet scheduled.
Grizzly mortality / recruitment Analysis. Bruce McLellan will analyze in detail for the WSBRP area. [Back to Research Highlights] |
