Alberta grizzly bear deaths reach record low since being declared 'threatened'

EDMONTON— Alberta's grizzly bear mortality rate tumbled 55% in 2025, marking the lowest number of human-caused deaths since the Government of Alberta declared them a "threaten species" in 2010. According to data from the Ministry of Forestry and Parks published on Thursday, humans caused only 18 grizzly deaths in 2025, which is in contrast to the record high 40 bears killed by humans in 2024. Grizzlies experienced a decrease in human-caused deaths across numerous categories in 2025, but the sharpest decline was in the number related to industry removals, which fell from 21 to six.Grizzlies killed as part of First Nations "treaty harvests" were the most common human cause in 2025, leading to the death of seven bears..The decline comes amid calls from Albertans for the government to modify Alberta's Grizzly Bear Recovery Plan, as the population appears to be rebounding from roughly 700-800 grizzlies when the plan was created. "People in the country that live alongside grizzly bears, and some that haven't traditionally lived alongside grizzly bears, are now, and I think there's a lot of concerns," said Minser of Forestry and Parks Todd Loewen in an interview with the Western Standard in July.Such calls prompted the UCP to introduce the Wildlife Management Responders Network in 2024, giving wildlife management responders and eligible Albertans the authority to euthanize a problem grizzly when officers determine it is appropriate.The program led to one grizzly death in 2025; however, the Ministry of Forestry and Parks told the Western Standard in July that five bears had already been euthanized under it in 2026..Multiple videos of close encounters between hikers in Alberta and grizzlies have circulated on social media throughout the summer, including one incident in which a bear attacked a woman and her dog at the bottom of a trail. In March, the Alberta Rural Municipalities Association passed a motion calling on the RMA to lobby the government to increase efforts to better understand the current state of Alberta's grizzly population and to reassess management efforts, including possibly loosening the hunting ban. "They are the people that have to live with the wildlife directly, and so, we definitely weight that heavily, and we want to make sure that we don't want to dismiss their concerns and their requests for action," Loewen said. "So that is something we're taking very seriously." The Government of Alberta made it illegal to recreationally kill grizzlies in 2006, and 2025 marked the first year where no bears were killed illegally. Albertans have called for the government to make recreational grizzly bear hunting legal again, at least in some form, but Loewen's ministry has not yet obliged. In July, he said they had no current plans to do so, but they are "considering everything."

Alberta grizzly bear deaths reach record low since being declared 'threatened'

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