Surge in grizzly bear shootings under provincial program sparks alarm

A provincial program allowing private hunters to kill problem grizzlies has claimed 10 of the bears so far this year, with critics saying those numbers are confirming their worst fears.

Most of the animals were killed in Alberta’s southwest corner, due largely to the threat they posed to livestock, said Forestry and Parks Minister Todd Loewen.

They occurred under a program announced in 2024 that grants private hunters authorization to kill grizzlies if they’re determined by wildlife officers to be habituated or to have killed livestock.

Provincial officials say the policy does not represent a resumption of the grizzly bear hunt that’s been banned for a decade.

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Loewen said the shootings are a reflection of an unfortunate increase in human-grizzly conflict, specifically involving ranchers.

“There’s been an increase in incidents … it falls along the line of negative interaction (between) humans and grizzlies,” said the minister, adding the government’s wildlife management policy is “always based on science.”

By comparison, one grizzly was killed under the program in 2025, “but it didn’t come into place until partway through the year,” he said.

Sport hunting of grizzly bears ended in 2006 over concerns for the population’s sustainability, with the animal listed as a threatened species in 2010.

That designation sits at the middle of a scale, with endangered being the most urgent and vulnerable being the least.

In 2008, the province implemented a grizzly bear recovery plan, which seeks to restore habitat, reduce human-animal confrontation and bear mortality.

The province says the number of grizzlies in Alberta has grown from 800 in 2010 to more than 1,100, with counts tabulated by DNA analysis of hair from rub trees.

But a count of the animals hasn’t been done since 2018, though the province has commissioned a monitoring program in two of Alberta’s seven bear management areas in an effort to better gauge grizzly sustainability.