4/28/2016 0 Comments GRIZZLY BEARSBears have been around for over 20 million years. Historically there used to be over 50,00 grizzly bears in the lower U.S. and Mexico in the early 1800’s. In 1985, estimated populations of the grizzly were 1,200 in Alberta, 6,500 in British Columbia, and 4,000 to 5,000 in the Northwest Territories. Grizzly bears have been hunted for their hides, teeth, claws, paws and their internal organs (specifically the gall bladder) for the Asian medical market. The gall bladders are ground up and sold on the black market to treat digestive problems, blood purification and inflammation; the most expensive gall bladder was sold for $45,000. Bear paws are sold in Asian restaurants as food and are cooked up, sometimes while the bear is still living. Many bear paws are sold to Korea and cooked for a dinner around $300 to $500. Native tribes symbolize the grizzly bear as a god. The bear in native history is a symbol of strength, bravery, peace, resurrection, powerful, benevolence, sovereignty, motherhood and duality. The bear symbolism offers many messages to us as humans such as patience and connection, confidence and authority and nurturing and protection. This is because the bear is also a totem animal meaning that the bear will help guide us through some tough times in our lives. The grizzly stood for many meanings and rituals. The bear dance was considered the “ghost dance” to bring back the spirits of the bears who have passed away and the ancestors of the natives come back and help put the bears to sleep for the season of hibernation or torpor. The grizzly bear is not only a symbol in Native American history; the grizzly is also a symbol for many historic groups and people. In the Scandinavian legend the bear was an aspect of the god Odin and berserkers were known to wear the bearskin in battle to enforce ferocity. In Greek mythology the huntress Artemis would wear bearskin as a symbol of hunting prowess and power. The positive impacts with the grizzly bear are that we have gotten to study a species and focus on them to figure out history, evolution, and taxonomy of the species. Positive impacts are that we have been able to save humans with the “medicine” that we gather from the bears, but the real thought is; can what we are doing to these bears be considered right? We have chased the grizzly bear out of its habitat because of the hunting and the infrastructure that we have been creating. Humans and bears have been in contact for a long time and we are currently trying to make sure that we aren’t harming the bears anymore. There have been lots of deaths with grizzly bears entering people’s garbage’s and chicken coops to getting hit on highways because we have paved roads right through their habitat. Grizzly bears need secure habitat to be able to move and roam around like Yellowstone National Park. The grizzly populations have been split up and now they navigate through the road system and town system that we have set up because we have built right between the habitats. It is important we don’t split up the grizzly bear species and population anymore because they are important to the ecosystem, environment, and ecology of the forests and tundra’s that they currently live in. The bear is the king of the jungle in Northern America and because we are splitting up the habitats the grizzly bear numbers have been declining significantly. Everything in the ecosystem works together, if we eradicate grizzly bears from their habitat then we will have problems with other species growing and the balance will be lost. Different Stakeholders that that affect the relationship with the Grizzly bears are:
Two wildlife management strategies are that the NGO organizations and the government of Canada and the provincial government are working together to help conserve the grizzly bear population. One strategy was to track the bears using collars and watch the patterns and marks on the trees that they rub on. Managing the area that the bears live in will show researchers the habitat that they live in. Other strategies are to minimize road and construction, minimize infrastructure in the habitat that the grizzly bears live in. One of the biggest wildlife management plans is to build tunnels and bridges for the animals to cross over so that the vehicles don’t hit them and that they can learn to use the overpass when needed. C-Paws has a step-by-step process on bringing the grizzly bears back into Alberta. The trade off is less infrastructure, but in order to bring back a certain species in the forest where we can bring back and maintain the forest ecology is important. C-Paws plan to bring back the grizzly bears:
Luckily now we have a government that is focusing on the youth and focusing on getting back in focus with protecting the environment. The Canadian Government under Justin Trudeau and the liberal party have focused and campaigned on saving certain parts of the environment and the ecosystem such as the Great Bear Rainforest. I was critical that the Northern Gateway Pipeline was not built because it would have gone through the Great Bear Rainforest and would have along the way damaged a lot of homes for other species in the rainforest, as it is the largest temperate rainforest in Northern America. Non-governmental-organizations such as C-Paws and WWF have joined hands with the stakeholders and communities as well as people all around the world to protect many acres and spots of land to promote the species of animals and to promote grizzly bears and the wildlife habitat that they live in. As people, we may not think that grizzly bears have a huge affect on us, well especially living in the city we might not be able to do much but it doesn’t take a huge effort to think about what we can do. Driving out to the mountains and towns such as Canmore or Banff we should be cautious of the animals that we can encounter as we enter bear country. Now, going on hikes and camping we can all take a few seconds to dispose of our trash rather than littering and even the thought of running into a grizzly and her cubs is a lot to bear. However being smart and knowing how to deal with a situation if you ever encountered a grizzly is an easy thing to do. BE BEAR AWARE. We as humans need to stop being a threat to grizzly’s and be conscious about our decisions on when we are out in the wild and together we can help the grizzly population thrive again. "National Parks." Liberal.ca. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Apr. 2016. <http://www.liberal.ca/realchange/ national-parks/>. "Grizzly Bear Recovery." C-Paws. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Apr. 2016. <http://cpaws-southernalberta.org/ campaigns/grizzly-bears>. "New Solutions." arc-solutions. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Apr. 2016. <http://arc-solutions.org/ new-solutions/>. "Help Us Protect Grizzly Bears." Defenders.Org. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Apr. 2016. <http://www.defenders.org/help-us-protect-grizzly-bears>. "Grizzly Bear History." WesternWildlife.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Apr. 2016. <http://westernwildlife.org/grizzly-bear-outreach-project/history/>. "Grizzly Bear." NWF.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Apr. 2016. <https://www.nwf.org/Wildlife/ Wildlife-Library/Mammals/Grizzly-Bear.aspx>. "Brown/Grizzly Bear hunting in Alaska." adgf.alaska.gov. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Apr. 2016. <http://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm%3Fadfg=brownbearhunting.main>. "Traditional Medicine Trade: Bears." Endangered Species Handbook. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Apr. 2016. <http://www.endangeredspecieshandbook.org/trade_traditional_bears.php>. "Threats to Grizzly Bears." Defenders.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Apr. 2016. <http://www.defenders.org/grizzly-bear/threats>. "Grizzly Bears." indians.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Apr. 2016. <http://www.indians.org/articles/ grizzly-bear.html>. "Grizzly Bears." edu.pe.ca. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Apr. 2016. <http://www.edu.pe.ca/southernkings/ grizzly.htm>. "Basic Facts About Grizzly Bears." defenders.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Apr. 2016. <http://www.defenders.org/grizzly-bear/basic-facts>. "Ursus arctos horribilis - the Grizzly Bear." tolweb.org. Spencer Heffernan, n.d. Web. 28 Apr. 2016. <http://tolweb.org/treehouses/?treehouse_id=4728>. "future for the grizzly." env.gov.ab.ca. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Apr. 2016. <http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/ wld/grzz/grst.html>. "Grizzly Bears." National Wildlife Federation. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Apr. 2016. <https://www.nwf.org/ Wildlife/Wildlife-Library/Mammals/Grizzly-Bear.aspx>. "spirit guides." behance.net. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Apr. 2016. <https://www.behance.net/gallery/ 9432995/Spirit-Guides>. "Grizzly Bears." Wikipedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Apr. 2016. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Grizzly_bear>.
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