AFTER THE MASSIVE international spotlight on Vancouver during the 2010 Olympics, many people will remember Canada for the accomplishments of our winter athletes. But just as many will remember us for something that has always defined our nation: our spectacular natural environment.
In much of Canada, you can still find all of the charismatic megafauna that were present at the time of European settlement, including grizzly bears, cougars, wolves and wolverines.
British Columbia is home to as many as half of Canada’s grizzly bears and is one of the Earth’s last safe havens for these great animals. In other parts of the world, including Western Europe, Mexico and the continental U.S., grizzlies and other bears have been driven to extinction or are on the verge of disappearing.
Despite their importance in nature and their vulnerability to human impacts, grizzlies remain unprotected in Canada. Some provinces, such as British Columbia, allow hunters to kill this threatened animal for sport.
The trophy-hunting season for grizzlies and other bears in B.C. will open in a few weeks.
The extent to which trophy hunters are killing grizzlies in B.C. was not fully known until now.The David Suzuki Foundation recently acquired and analyzed thousands of kill records collected by the government. We found that close to 10,000 grizzlies have been legally hunted in B.C. since the late 1970s.
Our research also shows that hunters are turning many of B.C.’s parks and protected areas into graveyards for bears that are legally slaughtered.We’ve identified more than 60 provincial parks where grizzly bears are hunted for sport. British Columbia has taken steps to protect grizzly habitat by banning some resource activity like logging and mining in protected areas, but these measures are nearly useless without laws that prohibit people from killing bears.
Ironically, the strongest protection for grizzly bears exists outside of Canada, in places like Mexico where they are no longer found. We must tell our government leaders that this is not acceptable. Canada’s wildlife is worth much more than an Olympic mascot or a marketing brand to sell to tourists — or a trophy on someone’s wall.