Grizzly Bear Program
Providing knowledge and planning tools to ensure the long-term conservation of grizzly bears in Alberta.
The Grizzly Bear Program was started and led in 1998 by Gord Stenhouse. Over the decades the team conducted seven large-scale population inventories, improved methods for studying the species, and answered key questions about grizzly bear habitat, health, behaviour, and response to human activity. Since 2023, Dr. Darío Fernández-Bellon has led our grizzly bear research with a focus on developing efficient monitoring methods. Simultaneously, we are generating new data on grizzly bear populations and maintaining critical tools so that bears can be managed on a solid scientific basis.
Current Areas of Focus
- Fine-tuned field methods: we are trialing new site configurations, scent lures, and the use of trail cameras. The goal is to lower costs while getting more samples for the same effort.
- Streamlined study design: we are testing whether a drastically pared-back study effort can still give statistically robust, management-relevant information about grizzly bear populations such as densities, trends, and occurrence.
- Getting more data per sample: by decoding hormones in the same hair samples that we are using for DNA, we hope to be able to identify the drivers of population trends.
- Maintaining critical tools: The GBTools, launched in 2007, includes GIS tools for simulating the effects of development and restoration on grizzly bear habitat and mortality, as well as a province-wide genetic database of all sequenced grizzly bears.
Major Achievements
- Inventories: we conducted eight major population inventories, including the only two re-surveys of Bear Management Areas allowing the first scientific population estimate for the entire province, and the first indications of sub-population trends.
- GBTools: we built GIS Tools and a queryable genetic database that translate research into decision support tools for government and industry.
- Publications: nearly 200 peer-reviewed papers have laid a solid scientific foundation for grizzly bear management, including setting road density threshholds in grizzly bear habitat.
- Longterm data: over one million GPS collar locations, tens of thousands of hair samples, thousands of identified individuals, and decades of habitat data create a unique and powerful data set that can answer critical new questions.
Explore More
Interactive StoryMap recapping the program’s activities
Compendium of scientific publications
Infographics explaining advances of the program
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- Bighorn Mining
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- John Nyssen
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- Larry Gruenke
The fRI Research Grizzly Bear Program was created in 1998 to study the potential impact of a proposed coal mine south of Hinton. Concerns about grizzly bear populations in Alberta led many more partners to bring questions about the impacts of their activities, and the program steadily expanded in scope.
The program’s original study area was located in west-central Alberta, south of Highway 16 with the Brazeau River as its southern boundary. The study area encompassed 10,000 km2.
In 2003, the Grizzly Bear Program began expanding its study area and today has a suite of GIS tools seamlessly covering the entire grizzly bear range in Alberta. We keep these tools up to date for our partners by updating data layers and adding useful analysis features.
Starting in 2004, we have worked with the Government of Alberta to systematically survey and re-survey Bear Management Areas to estimate grizzly bear populations over time.
Over time we pioneered and fine-tuned non-invasive methods of population monitoring. We systematically collect grizzly bear hair, extract the DNA to identify individuals. By looking at how often we see see the same bears, we can estimate the total population
In 2018 when we conducted the first ever survey of the Swan Hills Area. This allowed the province to create a scientific estimate for Alberta.
Historical Partners
| ABMI | DMI | Norbord |
| Ainsworth Lumber | Edson Forest Products | Northrock Resources |
| Alberta Advance Education and Technology | Elk Valley Coal | NSERC |
| Alberta Conservation Association | Enbridge | Parks Canada |
| Alberta Energy Regulator | EnCana | Pembina Pipeline |
| Alberta Environment & Parks | Environment Canada | Peregrine Helicopters |
| Alberta Environment/SRD | Fording Coal | Petro Canada |
| Alberta Fish and Game | Forest Resources Improvement Association of Alberta (FRIAA) | Peyto Exploration |
| Alberta Innovates – Biosolutions | Friends of Kananaskis Country | Prairie Mines & Royalties ULC |
| Alberta Newsprint Company | Gateway Pipeline | Precision Drilling |
| Alberta Sustainable Resource Development | GeoAnalytic | Progress Energy |
| Alberta Tourism and Parks | Government of Canada | PTAC |
| Alberta Upstream Petroleum Research Fund | Grande Cache Coal | Rangeland Conservation Service |
| Anadarko | Gregg River Resources | Repsol Oil & Gas Canada Inc. |
| ANC Timber | Hinton Fish & Game Association | Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation |
| Anderson Resources | Hinton Wood Products (West Fraser) | Seven Generations Energy |
| AVID Canada | Husky Energy | Shell Canada |
| Banff National Park | Jasper National Park | Slave Lake Pulp |
| BC Oil & Gas Commission | Joss Wind Power Inc. | Spray Lake Sawmills |
| Blue Ridge Lumber | Komex International | St’at’imc Government Services |
| BP Canada Energy Company | Lehigh Inland Cement | Stoney Tribal Administration |
| Buchanan Lumber-Tolko | Luscar | Suncor Energy |
| Burlington Resources | Manning Forestry Research Fund | Sundance Forest Industries |
| Canada Center for Remote Sensing | McGraw-Hill Ryerson | Sundre Forest Products |
| Canadian Co-op Wildlife Health Centre | Millar Western | Sunpine Forest Products |
| Canadian Forest Service | Millennium EMS Solutions | Talisman Energy |
| Canadian Natural Resources | Municipal District of Bighorn | Teck Coal |
| Canadian Wildlife Service | Natural Resources Canada | Telemetry Solutions |
| Canfor | Natural Resources Service | Trans Canada Pipelines |
| Cardinal River Coals | Nature Conservancy | University of Alberta |
| Cedar Mueller | NatureServe Canada | University of British Columbia |
| Coal Valley Resources | Nexen | University of Calgary |
| Coalspur | University of Laval | Weldwood of Canada |
| Conoco Phillips | University of Lethbridge | West Fraser (Hinton Wood Products / Blue Ridge Lumber / Sundre Forest Products / Slave Lake Pulp) |
| Conservation Biology Institute | University of Saskatchewan | Western College of Veterinary Medicine |
| Devon Canada | University of Victoria | Weyerhaeuser |
| University of Washington | Wild Year Productions | |
| Veritas | World Wildlife Fund Canada | |
| Waterton Lake National Park |
Research Themes
Since 1998, the Grizzly Bear Program has published over 200 scientific papers and graduate theses. While it would be extremely challenging to summarize all the research results, we have grouped program activities into five general themes. Click a topic below to find a chronological list of publications related to that theme.
This theme covers mapping and GIS classification, habitat change and analysis, landscape structure, vegetation distribution, and phenology and climate work.
This theme includes population survey methods and the use of telemetry data from collared bears.
Grizzly bear biology encompasses natural history, diet and energetics, behaviour and predation, and genetics and intraspecific interactions.
This theme relates to our our work on capture and handling techniques, body condition and stress, and the relationship between habitat and bear health.
This is a very large topic covering: habitat associations and conservation, anthropogenic disturbance generally, roads, human recreation, industry, forestry, mining, oil and gas, climate, and conflict with humans.