Starving Grizzlies Killed in Canada
11/24/99
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Title: Starving Grizzlies Killed in Canada
Source: Associated Press
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: November 24, 1999
VANCOUVER (AP) -- Rangers and villagers killed nine grizzly bears on
Canada's western coast, after large numbers of the animals began
foraging in town when their traditional supply of salmon dried up,
officials said Wednesday.
A mother bear and two cubs were killed Wednesday in the most recent
shootings and three other bears were airlifted out of the region.
Residents of Oweekeno village on the central British Columbia coast
say they have never seen so many bears in town, said Tom Gottselig,
the fisheries administrator for the Oweekeno First Nation, an Indian
group.
He blamed the lack of salmon, which make up 70 percent of the bears'
diet.
The area, also known as Rivers Inlet, has recorded more than 3 million
sockeye salmon returning to spawn in past years, Gottselig said. This
year's figure was expected to be 3,500, he said.
``It's an absolute catastrophe,'' he said.
Conservatioinists blame a history of logging and over-fishing in the
area for the depleted salmon numbers.
Herb Langin, an Environment Ministry spokesman in nearby Williams
Lake, said the bears were a threat to the community and unsuitable for
relocation.
``It wasn't likely they were going to survive,'' Langin said. ``They
didn't have the fat reserves that a bear would normally have at that
time of year.''
Tom Reimchen, a biologist researching the relationship between bears,
called on the federal government to take immediate steps to help the
salmon stocks recover.
He warned that the problem exists all along the British Columbia
coast, threatening the ecology and local communities.
==================================================== President James
Madison said, ``I believe there are more instances of the abridgment
of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of
those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.''