Letting hunters use dogs to hunt black bears is a move the Alberta government says will help caribou conservation efforts, but wildlife biologists aren't convinced.
The province first made the regulation change last year under Forestry and Parks Minister Todd Loewen, prompting backlash from wildlife advocates and support from hunters. The decision to reinstate it this year has led to further controversy, including public calls for the hunt to be rescinded and a campaign to show support for the hunt.
"This is being done in order to support predator management in areas where caribou recovery is a concern," reads this year's Alberta Guide to Hunting Regulations, published annually with new rules and guidelines.
Woodland caribou numbers in Alberta have experienced a steep decline for decades — but the provincial government's former caribou manager, Dave Hervieux, says the notion that hunting black bears with dogs would support caribou conservation efforts is false.
"There's no scientific background or support for hunting black bears with dogs as a means to aid caribou," said Hervieux, who worked with the Alberta government for more than four decades before retiring in 2024.
Hervieux says of the 23 wildlife management units where hunting black bears with dogs is permitted, 10 do not contain any caribou range, and another two "have almost no" caribou.
"These [wildlife management units] likely never had the landscape and habitat conditions that would constitute caribou range or enable caribou occurrence," he said. "They likely never had caribou historically."
"The hunting of black bears with dogs is considerably focused on areas which are not caribou range, do not have resident caribou, and historically were unlikely to have had caribou," he said.
The provincial government controls wolf populations in an effort to protect caribou.
"Delivery of wolf management has been sufficient to stabilize and in many cases increase caribou populations," Hervieux said.
But wolves and bears are different beasts entirely.
"There's virtually no evidence of consequential predation by black bears on caribou calves in Alberta, or many other parts of woodland caribou range in Canada," he said.
Hervieux says actively reducing wolf populations is a temporary but necessary crisis-management tool to prevent caribou populations from going extinct immediately, but that true recovery is impossible without addressing the ongoing loss of habitat.
He says caribou habitat conservation and recovery are needed in order to avoid the need to cull wolves forever.
Can Jasper’s new breeding centre save caribou from local extinction?
