{"id":10527,"date":"2023-11-14T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-11-14T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/?p=10527"},"modified":"2023-11-03T09:30:59","modified_gmt":"2023-11-03T09:30:59","slug":"climate-change-is-affecting-bears-and-humans-need-to-learn-more-to-avoid-conflicts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/climate-change-is-affecting-bears-and-humans-need-to-learn-more-to-avoid-conflicts\/","title":{"rendered":"Climate change is affecting bears, and humans need to learn more to avoid\u00a0conflicts"},"content":{"rendered":"\nDouglas Clark<\/a>, University of Saskatchewan<\/a><\/em><\/span>\n\n

In 1967, two simultaneous grizzly bear attacks<\/a> in Montana\u2019s Glacier National Park launched an era of research into human-bear conflicts. <\/p>\n\n

Studies showed the importance of stopping two specific bear behaviours: food conditioning<\/a> and habituation to people. Those pioneering findings translated readily into advice and policies<\/a>, saving many bear and human lives. <\/p>\n\n

However, all that work assumed ecosystems remained stable: a notion now upended by climate change. Food shortages acutely increase conflicts<\/a> between bears and people, but we have not applied this awareness to the \u201cnew normal\u201d of climate-driven ecological disruption.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Climate change and bear behaviour<\/h2>\n\n

A new perspective is needed to understand how bears and the ecosystems that support them are affected by climate change, and how those stresses, in turn, might create novel risks for people. Rare situations such as predatory attacks remain poorly understood, but are becoming common enough to require precautions.<\/p>\n\n

In 2018, a grizzly bear killed a woman and her infant near their remote Yukon cabin in late November, long after that bear should have been hibernating in its den. The coroner\u2019s office reported<\/a> the bear was an underweight older male and concluded this was a predatory attack. <\/p>\n\n

Yukoners were quick to point fingers at climate change, noting the mild autumn weather across the territory. That attack shook up a lot of people, possibly because it took place after people had relaxed their usual bear precautions for the winter. But that\u2019s not wise anymore.<\/p>\n\n

That wasn\u2019t the only winter-active bear that year either: two more were shot to prevent conflicts with people and others were reported in northern British Columbia. <\/p>\n\n

During my PhD research<\/a>, I documented northerners\u2019 stories about winter-active bears: they were described as extremely rare, but very dangerous to meet. Multiple such bears in a single year clearly indicates something\u2019s changing. <\/p>\n\n

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