Canada Fights To Save Grizzlies With GPS Tracking

In attempt to mitigate grizzly bear mortalities in two of Canada’s top national parks, officials are planning to outfit bears with lightweight GPS tracker devices.

In the past decade, 10 grizzly bear mortalities have been reported on the Canadian Park rail lines of the Banff and Yoho national parks. Since the grizzly bear is endangered in parts of Canada[1]  (threatened in the United States), park officials are concerned about the number of grizzly bear deaths near rail ways.

As soon as the grizzly bears become active in Banff and Yoho National Parks in Canada this spring, Canadian Pacific Railways and Parks Canada hope to tag, collar, and track the up to 10 bears over the next four years. Park officials say they will focus on minimal stress to the bears during the trapping, including frequently checking traps and using trap-site transmitters to reduce the time grizzlies spend in traps.

The main reason for the trappings is to learn about bear movement in order to up the safety for the bears. Because an increasing number of bears have been killed on the rail tracks from bears wandering on them, park department officials can prevent them from meandering in the direction of danger by collaring them with a GPS tracker.

Data obtained from the monitoring will be used by test teams to identify the causes that fuel increased bear deaths around these railways. Once the root cause, or causes, is clearly understood, solutions can be identified, said Parks Canada’s project manager, Kris McCleary.

One such possible solution that looks promising relates to vegetation management. Among the specific areas to be examined include: grain aversion effectiveness, habitat improvements off-site, and improving both sight and sound-line improvement around the rail tracks through managing vegetation.

This joint initiative between Canadian Pacific Railways and Parks Canada will cost $1 million to help reduce the number of bear deaths in the area. During the first three years of the project, $800,000 will be used primarily in the information-gathering phase.

Bears haven’t been tracked for research purposes by the federal agency in a decade.

Although the primarily goal is to increase the safety of the grizzlies, the project won’t ultimately end with the bear issue. After the four year study, the plan is to expand what was learned during the study and apply it to other wild animals living around the rail lines.

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