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1990.8--5-9.pdf | Download |
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The agencies responsible for the management of the grizzly bear (Ursus arctos horribilis) have formed an interagency organization called the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee (IGBC). The Committee has developed guidelines for management of bears and bear habitat that are being applied in 4 of the 5 ecosystems where populations of bears still exist in the contiguous 48 states. The Committee, through its members, has also endorsed and often funded research on habitat and grizzly bear populations. The Committee currently has a task force assisting the U.S. Forest Service in their development of a cumulative effects model (CEM) that will use existing data on habitat and bears to evaluate the additive as well as individual effects of various activities on bears. Research is needed to validate CEM components. Additional research is needed on social attitudes toward the grizzly bear, aversive conditioning, physiological effects of handling bears and population genetics. Some small populations may need periodic injection of new genetic material. A project evaluating population augmentation as a possible management tool to increase genetic diversity and population size is planned in the near future. The Northern Continental Divide and Yellowstone populations appear secure and the former appears to have reached a recovered level. It is important that the delisting process proceed in this population to confirm recovery, fulfill commitments to the public and assess our ability to manage grizzly bears without the protection of the Endangered Species Act. It is also important to focus more attention on areas where the bear is less secure. While past recovery efforts have concentrated on areas in the United States, it may be impossible to maintain a viable population in some border areas without including the bears and habitat provided by neighboring Canadian provinces. To aid in this cooperation, the IGBC recently was expanded to include British Columbia and Alberta.