GRIZZLY BEAR SURVIVAL IN OIL AND GAS OPERATING AREAS

Gordon Stenhouse, Foothills Research Institute

16-ERPC-04

This project is specifically directed at addressing key questions about ongoing concerns on how oil and gas development and activities may impact threatened grizzly bear populations in Alberta. Despite strong science and published research suggesting that grizzly bears do not avoid nor are displaced from oil and gas development activities, the mortality events associated with poaching along resource roads continues to be a significant management concern. The proposed project is intended to build upon existing data sets and advances made within our research project over the past 5 years to show how a new technique can be used to easily monitoring grizzly bear persistence and survival for the energy sector (and for all those conducting natural resource extraction activities) who are working or plan to work in core grizzly bear habitat in Alberta.

Policy Issue 

Biodiversity; Species conservation; Grizzly bears

Knowledge Gap

Predator use of anthropogenic features associated with oil and gas developments