Why no one in B.C. knows exactly how many black bears there are

They're common subjects of news stories at this time of year, usually as a result of interaction with humans and urban areas. But how common is the black bear in B.C.?

Wildlife advocates say the answer is far from clear, and better data is required to help and understand the species, many of whom are destroyed as a result of becoming habituated to human food.

"I want some more pressure on the government to address this big knowledge gap that we just don't know how many we have," said registered professional biologist Helen Davis with Artemis Wildlife Consultants.

"We don't know if we're hunting too many, if we're killing too many through conflict."

Materials from the government from 2001 say there are between 120,000 and 160,000 black bears across the province, and "although bear numbers vary from year to year and habitats available to them are slowly shrinking due to land development, the species is not currently rare, threatened, or endangered in British Columbia."

Biologists like Davis, who, along with First Nations, want bear dens in old-growth forests protected with provincewide legislation, say there could be a misconception that a key species with ecological and cultural value is plentiful when the data to support that is outdated or even dubious.

"The estimate of 120,000 to 160,000 gets repeated over and over and over again in the press," said Davis about seemingly ubiquitous stories about black bears becoming nuisance bears due to conflict with humans.

"And yet if you ask the government where that number comes from, they cannot produce any kind of data to back that up."

Davis and others, such as the Kwakiutl First Nation, want B.C. to follow Ontario and Washington state's lead in more modern surveys to more accurately estimate black bear numbers to help manage the species and the ecological connection to the landscape they thrive in.

"The bear is part of our origin stories through some families," said walas `Namugis, a hereditary chief with the Kwakiutl First Nation whose English name is David Mungo Knox.

"And why it's so important to talk about the bear and to talk about the old growth because without the bears, they wouldn't get the old salmon carcasses to the old mother tree roots that are 1,000-year-old trees," he added, referencing how salmon carcasses act as fertilizer for trees in forests.

Provincial statistics show hundreds destroyed each year, with more than 8,000 over a 14-year span. Black bears are also harvested yearly during two hunting seasons, which, on average, results in 5,000 more bears killed each year.

Other pressure on the animals comes from having their dens in trees destroyed by logging old-growth forests. The dens are only currently protected on Haida Gwaii and in the Great Bear Rainforest, and by some logging companies.

Provincial scientists say, while a focus in the past has been on grizzly bears, their numbers and a ban on trophy hunting, work is taking place to ensure the health of black bear populations.

Tony Hamilton was the province's large carnivore scientist from 1982 until he retired in 2018. He worked on the original widely cited estimate of black bear populations.

It was done through a comparative ranking of habitat quality across B.C. and assigning estimates of black bear densities per 100 or 1,000 square kilometres, he said.

Hamilton also said it's possible that the low end of a black bear population in B.C. could be 80,000, but stresses an overall population number may not be helpful for management.

"Frankly, I'm now of the mind that the pursuit of a single population estimate for a single point in time in B.C. is not something that we should pursue," he said. "Instead, I think we should focus on setting objectives for the animal."

It's something his successor supports, with both saying the resources required to do a massive, and expensive population study across B.C's huge diversity of ecosystems could be better spent on managing known problems such as orphaned bears, human-bear conflicts in backyards and agriculture fields while also protecting bear bens and managing the black bear hunt.

"It puts it back to the question of … can we minimize the number of killed just because it's a good thing to do and not have these animals killed in conflict?" said Garth Mowat, B.C.'s current large carnivore specialist.

Mowat conducted a study, published in 2021, in an area of Central Vancouver Island that showed black bear densities were 569 bears per 1,000 square kilometres, "which is higher than many black bear densities along the west coast of North America."

The study also said that average hunting (harvesting) rates were "similar to other areas in B.C., within the ranges of neighbouring jurisdictions, and generally within reported sustainable limits."

While advocates continue to push for better data around black bears, all sides of the debate agree that residents in B.C. should be aware of black bears and do their part to help avoid destroying them over issues within our control.