A recent encounter with a grizzly bear that went viral, as well as new research, are highlighting the importance of keeping dogs on-leash while hiking.
A woman is facing a fine of up to $25,000 after posting a TikTok video in July that generated several million views. It shows a man with bear spray yelling at a grizzly bear, as a small off-leash dog runs between him and the woman filming.
The video shows grizzly bear No. 142, a well-known female bear, walking along Taylor Lake trail in Banff National Park, showing no aggression.
The woman who filmed the video is scheduled to appear in Canmore court later this month.
A new peer-reviewed study, The Canine Conundrum: Is a Dog a Help or Hindrance in Bear Country?, dug into conflicts similar to what the video depicts, by analyzing 326 reported human-bear conflicts from 1901 to 2023 involving dogs.
The study found 54 per cent of conflicts were started by dogs. In the encounters researchers included in the study, five people and 56 dogs were killed, and 170 people were injured.
Lana Ciarniello, an independent researcher who co-authored the study, said researchers found when a person goes hiking with at least one other person, the odds of a negative bear encounter decrease by 50 per cent.
2 hikers and dog encounter grizzly bear in Banff National Park
However, when a dog is involved, the chances of a negative bear encounter increase because “a dog really adds a chaotic factor into the mix of recreation," said Ciarniello.
The study began after two hikers and their dog were killed by a grizzly bear in the Red Deer Valley area of Banff National Park in 2023.
A human-bear conflict can “negatively shape public perception of these vital ecosystem components.… Dog-bear conflicts not only affect owners, their dogs and the bears involved, but also the future of bears," the study said.
Frontcountry and backcountry encounters took place at about the same rate, and the study's findings indicate “risk of conflict could have been greatly reduced had [hikers] carried a deterrent, kept their dogs on-leash and hiked in a group.”
The research noted injuries were 4.5 times higher for people with off-leash dogs than on-leash, and more bear encounters took place with off-leash dogs.
Ciarniello said she hopes people follow on-leash dog mandates, which are law in Canada’s national parks, and potentially explore dog restrictions in some critical grizzly habitat areas.
“People are really expanding across that landbase,” she said. “We have critical areas for bears and maybe we say in those areas, ‘sorry, your dog can’t come.’”
