Rob Murray: I’m speaking with local Bear Biologist, Dr. Sarah Elmeligi. We are just getting into berry season here which means that encounters with bears become more likely on the trails. The subject of human wildlife coexistence always comes up at this time of year. You’ve actually done your PhD on a fairly similar subject, haven’t you?

Dr. Sarah Elmeligi: I completed my PhD a couple of years ago, and I was looking at how bears and people share trails in Banff, Kootenay, and Yoho National Park.

RM: What are some of the key takeaways?

SE: From the bear’s perspective, there’s a lot of individual variation. Some bears are more comfortable around people than others. One of the things I found is that bears always select high quality habitat. Somewhere in a bear’s mind is this decision whether high quality habitat near human use areas is worth it. Bears don’t want to be close to people, but if the habitat is really good, and there’s not other really good habitat available elsewhere, then they will choose to be close to people.

From the trail user’s perspective, I was pleasantly surprised that a lot of people were willing to change their own recreational plans to prioritize grizzly bears. When asked what they thought Parks Canada should do if a grizzly bear was in the area the most common response was to close the trail, which actually really surprised me because bears could be anywhere all the time. So if Parks Canada closed a trail every time a bear was in the area most of Banff would be closed on any given day, but that’s actually the expectation that a lot of trail users had. I think that there’s a little bit of a disconnect in how we manage recreational activity in areas where bears are active and what people actually expect us to do.

RM: Something you touched is that bears will select prime habitat if it’s close to people if there isn’t other prime habitat available nearby. Is there something more we could be doing to assist on that front?

SE: Probably the easiest example of that situation is in South Canmore. The trail network that is around the Highline trail and the Canmore Nordic Centre, there’s amazing berries in there. That is really high quality habitat, especially at this time of year, but it’s also a really popular human use area. Bears that are in that part of town are choosing to access that habitat, even though it’s a very busy area with people. Bears have a lot of decisions on how they choose habitat, not only about human use, but also within their own social life hierarchy. Often we see less dominant individuals accessing habitat around town, maybe females with cubs or adult bears, because the dominant males and the lone adults tend to take the higher quality habitat away from human use areas. I also think as recreationists that means that we need to be extra aware of recognizing that these bears are already making a sacrifice to access this habitat. We need to take extra precautions steps to make sure that when we use those areas, it doesn’t result in negative encounters and conflict.

RM: Both on an individual level and a higher government level, what are some things that we’re doing really well right now when it comes to human wildlife coexistence here in the Bow Valley?

SE: I have a book coming out this fall called What Bears Teach Us in partnership with John Marriott, and I get a little bit more into this issue of coexistence in the book, but the towns of Canmore and Banff are really leaders in human-wildlife coexistence. We’re really setting the bar on an international scale of what it can be to live with bears around your community. So we have a lot to celebrate as a community. We have bylaws in place around composting and bird feeders and all the bear proof garbage bins around town. All of those things are significant measures that help conflict.

As individuals, we need to also take responsibility for our recreational actions and how those can contribute to conflict. One of the things I love about living in the Bow Valley is that up-to-date, current information of bear sightings and potential conflict situations are online all the time. You can see where the bears are. Then, as recreationists, we can make choices to go recreate somewhere else. We have an array of trails at our disposal, and we can choose to go somewhere where we know bears are not currently active. Especially this time of year, bears are very focused on consuming as many calories as possible and we really want to be sensitive to that. If we could recreate somewhere else that has a lower chance of encountering bears that are busy stuffing their faces, that’s a win for bears and a win for us.

RM: What are some other general tips you might have for people recreating on the trails?

SE: We need to take those extra steps before we leave the house. That includes bear spray, planning to be recreating with others, looking online for where the current bear sightings are, etc. These are all things we do before we even walk out the door. Then I think we also need to be a little more flexible. If we arrive at a trailhead and there’s a bear warning, or if there’s a closure there, then we need to be flexible and change our plans. We should just go somewhere else.

RM: Any other things we could be doing in our day-to-day lives?

SE: We really need to think about what coexistence means to us. The Town of Canmore and the Town of Banff have partnered with the Parks agencies to create that human-wildlife coexistence technical working group report, and there’s some great things in there. But, as individuals, we exhibit coexistence on the trails every single day that we’re out there. If we try to think about putting the bear first, recognizing that bears in the Bow Valley actually have a pretty challenging day – they have to deal with the highway, a railway, thousands of people everywhere, and other bears and trying to find good habitat –  and then ask ourselves if what we’re doing is actually good for the bear.

The other thing I’ve been thinking – this summer we’ve seen a huge influx of people coming from out of town to appreciate and experience our Bow Valley. As residents, I think we can also take a responsibility to share with outsiders what our expectations are for coexisting with wildlife. I don’t mean that we should start berating people on the trails. I think there are ways to share with people and be kind and open and listen. I think that having the conversation is an essential part of human wildlife coexistence, and whether you’re having that conversation with visitors or other residents, I think that’s the most important piece here.

Dr. Sarah Elmeligi
Filed under: Banff, Bears, Canmore, Wildlife