How many NWT bears are killed or relocated each year?

NWT government wildlife officers have killed at least 401 bears and relocated bears 39 times over the past four years.

The data, released to Cabin Radio last week, suggests 2024 is shaping up to involve significantly fewer killings of bears than in other recent years.

That comes despite a succession of sightings in the Yellowknife area lately, resulting in multiple incidents where wildlife officers killed (the GNWT uses the term “dispatched”) bears to protect public safety. Fort Smith has also reported a range of bear encounters.

The data above includes only interactions with black bears. Only communities with a reported killing or relocation are shown.

“Although it might seem like there are more bears, the numbers to date this year are the same, if not lower, than previous years,” said a spokesperson for the NWT’s Department of Environment and Climate Change, which provided the statistics.

Total ‘does not cause concern’

The department offered a broad explanation for why the figures might vary between communities.

“The Northwest Territories is a vast and diverse region, and black bears can be found in all five ECC administrative regions. The number of black bears dispatched on an annual basis does not cause concern for effects to the NWT black bear population,” the department stated by email on Friday last week. (We don’t know with certainty how many black bears are in the NWT. Parks Canada has roughly estimated that Canada as a whole has just under 400,000.)

NWT communities without year-round road access – or that lack either trained personnel or suitable places to release bears – “face challenges in relocating bears,” the statement continued.

“In contrast, areas with reliable road access to suitable release locations tend to report higher relocation numbers, as bears can be transported further away from communities.”

It’s easy to speculate on other reasons why numbers might fluctuate from year to year.

Last summer, for example, evacuated communities reported an influx of bears in August and September. Yellowknife’s figure for bears killed that year is higher than in any of the other years shown.

This year, Fort Smith has had problems with the electric fence at the municipal dump. Residents have reported more than a dozen bears at a time exploring the dump, and the town has acknowledged it needs to fix the issue.

ECC did not provide specific comment on any one community’s figures, but the department did acknowledge the electric fence concern.

“Wildfires, drought and other factors in the Northwest Territories might be affecting black bears’ food sources, leading them to follow their noses into communities,” the department’s spokesperson stated.

“In addition, there are only five landfills in the NWT with an electric fence installed to deter wildlife from entering, and we have seen that at times those electric fences have not been installed appropriately for wildlife, or have not been maintained, leading to bears and other wildlife becoming habituated to landfills and humans’ activity.

“ECC will continue to work with municipalities to encourage maintaining and installing electric fences around their landfills.”

What happens after a bear is killed?

The NWT government has long maintained that it does try to relocate bears where possible. However, the data shows relocation is rarely the ultimate outcome.

“As we’ve said before, efforts are made to deter or trap bears before resorting to dispatching them,” ECC told Cabin Radio by email.

“However, when a bear becomes acclimated to humans, public safety must come first.”

The department maintains a bear safety webpage with tips for staying safe in bear country and also keeping bears from becoming habituated to the places where people live.

The data suggests the department has been left with more than 400 dead bears as a result of interactions since 2021. Cabin Radio asked what happens after a bear is killed.

Ordinarily, ECC said, a dead bear’s biological information is collected – its species, sex, rough age and condition – alongside various measurements and its weight, if a scale is readily available.

Samples collected from most bears will include a tooth, the tongue, the tip of an ear, a blood sample and a hair sample.

“The tooth is used for determining the age of the bear and the remaining samples are archived for future projects,” ECC’s spokesperson stated. “This data assists in understanding general population trends, health, and biology of bears in the Northwest Territories.”

The rest of the body can be disposed of in several ways.

“Carcasses not used by Indigenous harvesters are respectfully returned to the land whenever possible or are sometimes disposed of responsibly at a waste management facility,” ECC stated.

“If requested, the meat is shared with the local community. The fur, if it is prime quality, would be offered to Indigenous governments or trappers to process.

“We may also save a few whole bear carcasses and use them later for training on necropsy and sampling techniques with ECC staff and Aurora College students. This helps us further understand the animals and is valuable as an educational tool.”