Another specific purpose of the regulated hunt is to remove some nuisance animals. Information 

 from the Northern Continental Divide demonstrated that this was the case in many years. For 

 example, during the last legal hunt in Montana in 1991, two of the three bears taken were known 

 problem bears. 



Finally, since some hunting mortalities occur in relatively remote areas, removal of bears in a 

 regulated hunt could allow opportunities for young and subadult bears to establish home ranges 

 in areas away from people, further reducing bear-human conflicts. Also, harvest is usually 

 directed at the male segment so the sex ratio in harvested populations tends to be skewed towards 

 females. This in turn could assist with long-term distribution increase by allowing more females 

 to survive. 



Hunting impacts population composition in different ways, and regulations can impact the 

 composition of harvests. Because bears are promiscuous, regulations that direct harvests toward 

 males and away from adult females permit higher hunter quotas. In early spring, hunters kill 

 primarily males because they are the first to emerge fi'om dens. Females accompanied by 

 newborn cubs are the last to emerge ft-om dens. Similarly, males are the last to enter dens in the 

 fall, so late fall seasons have higher proportions of males. Regardless of regulations, male bears 

 are more vulnerable to hunters than female bears because they range more widely and are more 

 likely to encounter areas fi^equented by hunters. In central Alaska, females constituted 1 8% of 

 the spring season hunter kill prior to May 1 , but more than 40% of the harvest after the third 

 week in May. In the fall, females represented 53% of the kill during the first week of September, 

 but less than 43%) of the kill during October. In Alaska and Canada, regulations prohibit 

 shooting females accompanied by cub-of-year or yearling offspring, which also contributes to a 

 male bias in hunter harvests. In the Yukon, a point system is used that provides incentives for 

 outfitters to avoid harvesting females. For hunters to distinguish between males and female , the 

 female is usually accompanied by offspring or the male is exceptionally large. In Montana, by 

 using season timing and protective regulations for females with young, FWP was similarly able 

 to focus harvests on males during its legal hunt. 



In summary, FWT recommends a regulated hunting season be a part of the overall program for 

 the following reasons: 



1 . Legal harvest can be managed so as to have minimal impact on the population as a whole. 



2. Hunters ha\ e legally harvested problem bears and bear/human conflicts could be reduced 

 through such harvest. 



3. Hunting reduces the need for agency control of problem bears. 



4. Hunting selects against unwary bears and causes bears to be wary of humans. This promotes 

 long-term survival of the bear population in areas they share with humans. Hunting 

 promotes better acceptance of this large and potentially life threatening animal by the local 

 public who are asked to live with grizzlies, and this acceptance is a key to long-term survival 

 of the bear. If the local publics feel threatened by grizzlies, or the management program, 

 they will defend themselves as necessary. This in turn can have detrimental effects on 

 existing grizzly populations and clearly limits opportunities for expanded recovery efforts 

 due to local resistance. 



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