U.S.A. — The brown bear (Ursus arctos) populations of the world are primarily the identical animal, though recognized by totally different names. The European brown bear, the Hokkaido brown bear in Japan, the brown bear in Russia, the grizzly bear and kodiak bears in Alaska, and the grizzly bears in Canada and the decrease 48 states are genetically the identical bear with minor variations.
Brown bears are complicated mammals that may be taught and adapt. Brown bears rapidly be taught whether or not people are harmful or not. When brown bears are actively hunted, they be taught people are harmful predators and be taught to keep away from people. When the bears aren’t hunted, they be taught that people aren’t harmful.
A Scandinavian examine printed in 2018 reveals human accidents and deaths inflicted by brown bears in Sweden and Norway from 1977 to 2016. There have been two deaths and 42 accidents, which weren’t deadly. The bears in Sweden have been first protected in 1913. The bear inhabitants was estimated to be 130 in 1930. Common looking was resumed in 1943. By 1977, the bear inhabitants had elevated to about 500. By 2008, the inhabitants had elevated to three,300. It had been decreased to 2,800 by 2016. 41 of the 44 incidents within the Scandinavian examine occurred in Sweden. The three that occurred in Norway have been very near the Swedish border with Norway.
The brown bear inhabitants within the contiguous 48 states between Canada and Mexico elevated quickly throughout the identical interval. This permits a comparability with bears within the decrease 48 United States from 1975 to 2016.
In 1975, the USA declared the brown bear to be endangered within the decrease 48 states. Within the decrease 48, there was extraordinarily restricted looking of brown (grizzly) bears in Montana from 1977 to 1991. The inhabitants rose from between 700 and 800, principally in Nationwide Parks, in 1977 to almost 2,000 by 2016. There was no authorized looking for brown (grizzly) bears within the decrease 48 United States after 1991.
The inhabitants of Sweden (10.5 million) is greater than twice the inhabitants of Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming added collectively (3.7 million). Sweden covers about 174 thousand sq. miles. The three states cowl about 328 thousand sq. miles. In Sweden, a lot of the looking for moose and bears is finished with educated canines.
Over the 40 years of the Swedish examine, two individuals have been killed by bears. One was a hunter. Each he and his canine have been killed close to the bear’s den. The opposite was a person who was killed outdoors a looking lodge at evening. His physique had a blood alcohol degree of .27. There had not been any deadly bear assaults recorded in Sweden within the earlier 100 years. In Sweden, the bears have been regularly hunted since 1943.
Within the decrease 48 states, the ban on looking coincided with growing numbers of deadly assaults on people by bears. Over the identical 40-year interval of the Swedish examine, from 1977 to 2016, there have been 17 deadly assaults on people by wild brown (grizzly) bears within the decrease 48 states. A type of fatalities was a hunter who was attacked whereas processing an elk he had taken.
The Swedish paper discovered a excessive correlation between the variety of bear assaults and the variety of bears. Alaska has some parks the place bears aren’t hunted, however brown bears have been hunted from 1977 to 2016 in a lot of the state. Alaska had an analogous variety of human fatalities per bear per yr as occurred in Scandinavia. From the examine:
The two fatalities in 39 years in Scandinavia (1977–2016) contrasts, as an example, with the 55 fatalities attributable to brown bears in Alaska in 135 years (1880–2015) [43], i.e., there was one fatality each 19.5 years in Scandinavia vs. one fatality each 2.5 years in Alaska. Nevertheless, the brown bear inhabitants is ~10-times bigger in Alaska [43] than in Scandinavia, the place human inhabitants density is also greater.
The Swedish paper didn’t try to find out the efficacy of firearms in defending in opposition to bears:
We have now no information on bluff prices or shut encounters that didn’t finish in an harm or fatality, nor information on what number of bears charged, have been shot at, and didn’t injure the hunter.
Within the Scandinavian brown bear examine, most accidents have been inflicted by bears on hunters (32 of 42). It seems the hunters in Sweden have been defending the non-hunters by conditioning bears to worry and keep away from people. In distinction, the general public killed by bears within the decrease 48 states have been non-hunters (16 of 17).
There have been extra brown bears in Sweden throughout this era than within the decrease 48 states. The variety of deadly bear assaults on people per bear is about ten instances greater within the decrease 48 states than in Sweden or in Alaska. The flexibility of hunters to instill worry of people in brown bears appears clear.
Extra analysis is critical to find out which strategies of looking brown bears work higher than others to situation the bears to respect and keep away from people.
About Dean Weingarten:
Dean Weingarten has been a peace officer, a navy officer, was on the College of Wisconsin Pistol Staff for 4 years, and was first licensed to show firearms security in 1973. He taught the Arizona hid carry course for fifteen years till the objective of Constitutional Carry was attained. He has levels in meteorology and mining engineering, and retired from the Division of Protection after a 30 yr profession in Military Analysis, Growth, Testing, and Analysis.
