Parks Canada is continuing to investigate the use of a bear guardian team on Highway 93 South through Kootenay National Park in a bid to curb the high number of animals killed there every year.
The federal agency has been looking into the feasibility of employing an additional bear guardian team on that deadly stretch of highway, which has claimed more than 500 animals in the past decade, including a spike in the number of bears.
Officials say bear guardians interact with visitors to prevent and manage bear jams, as well as educate them on the importance of keeping animals wild in national parks.
“A bear guardian presence on Highway 93 South is something we remain interested in pursuing over the long-term, though no decisions have been made to date,” said Rick Kubian, resource conservation manager for Lake Louise, Yoho and Kootenay.
The most commonly killed animals on Highway 93 South are white-tailed deer, an important prey species for wolves and cougars. The road toll also includes wolves, wolverine, moose, lynx, black bears and grizzly bears.
Parks Canada’s existing bear guardian crew is made up of six interpreters trained to manage bear jams, educate visitors and raise awareness about bear safety and bear conservation issues.
The crews presently work exclusively in Banff National Park, focusing their efforts on the Icefields Parkway and the Bow Valley Parkway, as well as at popular day-use areas.
They are out seven days a week from mid-June until the end of September.
The cost of that program is about $132,000 a year. The program is jointly funded by Parks Canada’s Banff field unit and Lake Louise, Yoho and Kootenay field unit.
About 80 per cent of the funds go towards salaries for the Bear Guardian program, with the remaining 20 per cent of the funds are spent on the program’s operational costs.
Bears are often attracted to roadsides, which create openings that support plants that flourish in sunny locations. Some of these plants are important seasonal bear foods, like the fruit of buffaloberry shrubs.
Studies in Yellowstone National Park have shown that habituated grizzly bears are four times more likely to die an early, human-caused death than wary, wild bears.
Research in the central Canadian Rockies found that most of the bears that died human-caused deaths in Banff and Yoho National Parks were within 500 metres of roads or 200 metres of trails.
There are an estimated 60 grizzly bears in Banff.
