Black bears can once again be hunted with dogs in Alberta this year

Hounds can once again be used to hunt black bears in Alberta.

The province first made the regulation change last year, prompting backlash from wildlife advocates and support from hunters.

The practice has been brought back this year as part of Alberta’s wildlife management strategy, namely to help protect recovering caribou populations from predators.

The regulation change was “informed by the best available science, stakeholder input, and similar regulations from other jurisdictions,” the Ministry of Forestry and Parks said in a statement sent to CBC News.

Using dogs to hunt black bears is permitted in British Columbia and Ontario, as well as several U.S. states.

In Alberta, the practice is permitted during September and October in certain wildlife management units, specifically areas in Alberta’s northern boreal forests and the Rocky Mountain foothills, which the province says are key habitats for threatened caribou.

WATCH | Dog use for black bear hunting introduced last year in Alberta:

Dog use now allowed for black bear hunting in Alberta

The province has updated its hunting regulations to allow for dog use in black bear hunts starting in September. The move is aimed at managing predator populations to support caribou recovery, but one biologist worries the hounds may chase after other species.

“These changes maintain Alberta as a world leader in responsible wildlife management and environmental stewardship,” the province’s statement reads.

But Alberta Wilderness Association conservation specialist Ruiping Luo still isn’t convinced.

“There’s concerns with off-leash dogs because of the possible disturbance they have for wildlife,” Luo said.

In Alberta, dogs can also be used to hunt cougars and game birds. They can help recover big game after the animal has been shot, as long as the dog stays leashed in an area with an active open season.

Luo says off-leash dogs can disturb, startle and potentially harm wildlife, and that even well-trained hounds have instincts that could lead them to chase and harass non-target or vulnerable species.

“And so if you have off-leash dogs essentially potentially chasing grizzly bears because they are very similar to black bears, then even if the animal isn’t killed, that chase takes up energy,” Luo said. “It could be energy that the grizzly bear needs to get through the winter.”

The province tracks grizzly bear mortality in Alberta. From 2013 to 2022, six cases of grizzlies being mistaken for black bears and killed were reported.

In its statement, the province said “there is no evidence that the use of dogs to hunt black bears will adversely impact grizzly bears or other wildlife populations.”

Mark Hall with the hunter advocacy group Wild Origins Canada says expanding the black bear hunt to include the use of hounds is a step in the right direction.

“The truth is that this decision to allow dog-assisted hunting in the regulations in Alberta was the result of collaborative efforts between a lot of experts, biologists, scientists and people from a lot of different disciplines, including people that hunt with dogs,” Hall said.

“They all work towards a common goal of allowing hunting with the use of dogs to support caribou recovery, and to do it in a way that doesn’t jeopardize the overall management of black bears in the province.”

Hall pointed to research suggesting that black bear hunting helped improve moose calf survival rates in Minnesota.

“So I do think there is some scientific proof to say that this is not an unfounded approach to include in Alberta’s caribou recovery program,” he said.

As for ethical concerns, Hall says the idea that bears are terrorized or run to exhaustion by dogs is a misconception. He pointed out that black bears naturally deal with predators like wolves and grizzly bears, and that bears often view hunting dogs as a “nuisance” rather than a threat.

“I can’t help but believe that people somehow project their own personal fear or terrors onto the bear in that situation,” he said. “This is just the world they live in.”

Last year, 2,431 black bears were harvested by hunters in Alberta.