Premier Ujjal Dosanjh and Environment Minister Ian Waddell recently announced a three year moratorium on the sport hunting of BC's grizzly bears. It is the most rational and prudent course of action the province could take from both an ecological and economic perspective. Just twenty years ago the official estimate stood at 6,000 - 7,000. The grizzly hunting lobby's claim that there are 16,000 or more grizzly bears in BC has absolutely no foundation in science. Opponents of the moratorium are in denial about basic grizzly bear biology.
Grizzly bears have the lowest reproductive rate of any land mammal on the North American continent.
One reason for this is the late sexual maturation of female grizzlies, as they do not start breeding until 5 to 8 years of age. If optimum conditions exist breeding females will produce only one to three cubs per litter at 2 to 3 year intervals. One third of all litters die before the end of their first year, and at least 70 per cent of all young die before reproducing. In addition, there is a relatively long two to three year attachment of young grizzlies to their mothers. Grizzly bear populations are especially susceptible to the impacts of sport hunting because of these reproductive limitations.