A new Canadian study has discovered that grizzly bears that wander through tourist areas along a central coastal river are less likely to have run-ins with people living in nearby communities.
Jason Moody with the Nunatluk (also known as Nuxalk) Nation's wild fish and wildlife program said the research indicates that sustainable tourism, when done correctly, is not the main contributing factor to conflicts between bears and humans.
"It's apparent from our results that viewing bears in a certain manner doesn't make them more likely to have run-ins with humans later down the line," said Moody, who was involved in the study and operates an ecotourism venture out of Bella Coola.
Stories, songs, and dances that have been shared from one generation to the next prove that the Nuxalk and other First Nations from the west coast of British Columbia have long lived alongside bears, he stated.
It traces back for centuries or possibly even thousands of years, our connection with the bears, and we really relate to them deep within the Great Bear Rainforest.
But Moody said human activity, particularly when combined with reduced salmon runs, has more and more driven grizzly bears to interact with people in hostile ways.
A study was recently published in the Canadian Journal of Zoology, where researchers investigated whether bears that visit ecotourism areas might be habituated to humans and likely to come into conflict with them, according to the study's lead author, Kate Field.
Researchers have found that tourists are making local wildlife more "bold," as in more tolerant of human presence, through their interactions.
But Field noted the B.C.-based study had a different conclusion in the context of ecotourism in the Bella Coola Valley.
It found that grizzlies that visited ecotourism areas along the Atnarko River, which flows into the Bella Coola River, were less likely than other bears to encounter conflicts with people in communities roughly between 40 to 60 kilometres inland from the coast.
The study employed hair sampling to pinpoint the presence of 118 grizzlies along the river course, with Field referring to its banks as "DNA libraries" for detailing bear migration patterns.
"The trail a bear leaves behind leaves clues, every single strand of fur helping to tell a story," said Field, a doctoral candidate at the University of Victoria.
From 2019 to 2021, researchers collected samples during the salmon runs of late summer and fall and found 34 bears that had visited the ecotourism area at least once.
They compared the samples against "conflict samples" from bears that were caught or put down by the B.C. Conservation Officer Service, and only one of those bears later had conflicts with people in the Bella Coola Valley.
The remaining 29 bears that got into conflict with people were found to have not been detected at hair sampling sites in indigenous tourism areas along the Atnarko River.
"This pattern suggests that ecotour bears aren't typically running into conflicts, at least within this particular scenario," Field said.
The initial data indicated that a match would be unlikely. However, it didn't take into account the possibility that the number of grizzlies that didn't visit the ecotourism area was much greater than those that did.
Field said the researchers applied a probability approach to determine how big the population of "non-ecotour" bears in the area must be to achieve the same level and probability of conflict by chance.
According to the study, the non-eco tourist bear population would have to hit around 674 — nearly twice the highest possible population estimate.
The bears that were spotted at ecotourism sites had a lower likelihood than probability suggests of encountering human conflicts at further locations, the study found.
The study is highlighting "other human-related causes of conflict" between people and bears, including fruit trees and salmon-cleaning stations that draw in hungry grizzlies.
Moody states that the Nuxalk Nation seeks to reduce conflict by methods including the installation of electric fencing around salmon-processing sites during the harvest season.
But the overall availability of salmon in a given year is a significant factor in the conflict between bears and humans, and Moody mentioned that's one of the key reasons behind the country's efforts to restore and protect salmon runs.
Grizzlies are forced to seek out garbage, compost and other human-related food sources when there's a scarcity of natural food in their territories, Moody explained.
The trend we're seeing is that when we have had steady and robust runs of pink salmon, the conflicts in the communities in this valley, as well as on private properties, tend to decrease dramatically, just about entirely.
The bears have no cause for risk-taking and crossing into residential areas or highways, the fish have monopolized all the small streams and tributaries, and the bears are able to persist in some of the remaining forest cover without taking any risks.
Field also noted the results of a previous study conducted in B.C., which discovered that the number of grizzlies killed by conservation officers or in disputes with private individuals increased by 20 per cent for every 50 per cent decrease in the annual salmon population.
If salmon aren't available for bears, they might have to seek alternative food sources. So it really highlights the significance of protecting salmon stocks.
The study concludes that ecotourism takes place in regions with high salmon spawns along the Atnarko River, and experts hypothesize that the bears can obtain the salmon they require without entering downstream communities in search of sustenance.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published January 14, 2025.
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