Man May Prove to Be More Than the Grizzly Can Bear : Wildlife: As humans take more habitat in a shrinking outdoors, their ursine neighbors may be crowded out.

Is there room for bears in a crowded world?

Experts around the globe can be found brooding over the unfavorable mathematics: At the approach of the 21st Century, there are fewer bears remaining on the planet than there are people in San Diego or Phoenix. Every four days the world adds more people than there are surviving bears. Today, six of eight species of the legendary animals are declining in numbers, sometimes frighteningly so, as the human population increases.

So, will there be a place for bears in the future?

Probably not. But then again . . . maybe. So say the experts.

“We’re running out of habitat because there are just too damned many two-legged bears. We’re doing to the grizzly in North America what the grizzly did to those bears before it. We’re a better species and we’re wiping them out,” says Charles Jonkel, a Montana zoologist and co-founder of the International Conference on Bear Research and Management.

“We’re going to lose all the bears,” Jonkel continues. “It’s just a matter of time. The world is getting poorer and more crowded. And that makes people ornery. And there’s nothing on God’s green Earth we can do about it.”

It’s not altogether natural, however, for naturalists to surrender a cause while the Earth still grows green. Not without a fight.

And so when the world’s most distinguished 450 ursine scientists and advocates gathered here recently, some hope brightened the gloom. It was the ninth such gathering of world experts in a quarter century. Maybe there will be time for nine more, or 90. No one was taking bets.

“If I want to know how the bears are doing, I ask, ‘How are the people doing?’ They are indicator species for each other. When the people are struggling you can pretty much figure the bears are, too. When people are crowded, same with the bears. What’s good habitat for loggers is good habitat for bears; when the loggers start running out of trees, the bears are in trouble.”

The country philosopher saying that is Lance Olsen, the leader of the Montana-based Great Bear Foundation, an organization devoted to trying to save North America’s grizzlies.

Salvation in Scarcity

Like many of the other experts, Olsen can argue the future either way. The very thing that is so troubling--the scarcity of bears and places for them to roam--offers the hope now for saving them. They have become valuable because they are so few. And they are valuable not just for themselves. They have come to symbolize the shrinking domain of healthy forests, clean water, wildness and freedom.

“This planet is becoming so small and people are realizing if they wreck it, there is nowhere else to go. Like many human emotions, this doesn’t come out until what you have is almost gone,” observed Christopher Servheen, grizzly bear recovery coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, one of the foremost bear experts in the world.

He is co-chairman of bear research for the Swiss-based International Union for the Conservation of Nature. In the spring of 1993, his group plans to publish an action plan for saving the world’s bears.

Many of the scientists think the benchmark test looms just outside of town here, in the great remaining wild tracts of the Rocky Mountains.

Barely 100 years ago, the mountains and the plains extending in both directions, from the Pacific Coast into the Midwest, were home to 50,000 or more grizzlies. Today there are fewer than 1,000--maybe far fewer--in isolated high-mountain pockets of Montana, Wyoming, Idaho and maybe in the Cascades of Washington.

Friends in the City

For 11 years, the federal government has been trying to preserve these bears. They have become the most heavily managed in the world. The cost has been about $1 million a year, or more than $1,000 per bear. Literally hundreds of scientists and activists are devoted to the cause.

Most of the leading experts on the future of the grizzly in the Lower 48 states say this: If the United States--with its growing environmentalist movement, with still-unspoiled space for bears, with its affluence, and with the energy of its federal government--cannot preserve an endangered bear, what country can?

City dwellers may hold the key. Scientists like Stephen R. Kellert of the Yale University School of Forestry and Environmental Studies say that government officials in the West have been “far too conservative” in rallying urban support for efforts to save bears. Kellert’s studies show that wildlife has many friends and few critics in the cities--an abstract kinship, perhaps, but a passionate one.

Rural areas adjacent to the remaining bear sanctuaries, on the other hand, generate significant land-user opposition to protecting both habitat and the bears themselves. And to date, that is where most of the public hearings and political decisions about bear conservation are made.

California, the only state with the grizzly bear on its flag, is illustrative of how fast a bear population can be eliminated. About 10,000 of the animals roamed the valleys and foothills of California at the time of the Gold Rush in 1849. The last known California grizzly was killed in the 1920s.

Outside of the West and interior Alaska, the grizzly is known as the brown bear, but it is the same species. The total estimated world population is 180,000 and declining.

Canadian and Alaskan populations of brown bears are much healthier than in the 48 contiguous states, although forestry, oil and gas development and outdoor recreation are carving up the bear’s ranges there. For all its mighty reputation for power and size, the brown bear has proved ill-equipped to cope with development, and it is cursed with one of nature’s lowest reproductive rates.

Canadian bear scientist Stephen Herrero of the University of Calgary said that brown bears in Canada are dying off at a “frightening rate” on the edges of national parks, where they are attracted by garbage and come into conflict with development.

Still, the most alarming recent event for brown bears is the political instability in the former Soviet Union. “Most sad,” said University of Moscow biologist Igor Chestin. According to Chestin and his colleagues at the conference, the break-away central Asian republics do not share concerns of developed countries about saving bears. “The bears are threatened because people don’t like them there,” he said.

In the broader reaches of Siberia and elsewhere in Russia, economic demands threaten to unleash a massive lumber and energy boom, often in conjunction with Asian timber companies. Scientists say there are far too few conservation officials to protect the bears’ habitat or the bears themselves from poaching.

In Eastern Europe, brown bears also are squeezed by political instability and economic hard times. In Western Europe, the brown bear exists only in remote mountains of France, Spain and Italy--in groups of from 100 down to 20, which are thought to be too small for long-term reproductive survival without elaborate management.

Poaching of bears is a problem in most places in the world, but nowhere else is it as great as in Asia.

Judy Mills of the school of forestry at the University of Montana documented instances where a single bear’s gall bladder brought $64,000 on the open market in Asia. Down through the ages, Asian peoples have attributed powerful medicinal properties to bear gall bladders for such things as liver and digestive disease.

All three species of Asian bears are under intense human pressure.

Experts figure there are about 50,000 Asiatic black bears, and their numbers are believed to be declining sharply. In that part of the world, poachers can earn 15 times the per capita annual income by killing or capturing a single bear, according to scientists.

Small bears are frequently raised as pets, then sold at maturity for their pelts, gall bladders and meat. Mills said she saw bear paws for sale in a Yokohama, Japan, market for $250 per paw and found sliced bear paw on the menu at the Seoul Hilton in South Korea.

“There are fewer than 1 million bears on Earth and more than 1 billion potential human consumers (of bear parts in Asia),” she noted.

Of the other two Asian bear species, one is among the best known in the world and the other the least.

So little has been documented about the Malayan sun bear of Southeast Asia that scientists say there is no way to even guess at the numbers remaining.

“We know only that forest cover that the bears need in the region is down to 10% of its historic levels. The tragedy is that many populations of these bears will be gone before we know they were there,” said the Fish and Wildlife Service’s Servheen.

In Asia, the modest conservation efforts that exist often are devoted to other glamorous and threatened animals, such as the tiger.

The giant panda of China, on the other hand, has attracted worldwide conservation attention for many years. In a hard-line policy to try to deter poachers, China has executed three bear killers and sentenced others to life terms.

Still, fewer than 1,000 pandas live in the wild, in six small areas of China. And extinction is a very real possibility.

Like the grizzly in the Lower 48 states, the panda is seen as an indicator of whether conservation can be successfully sustained in the face of human population and economic pressures.

In remote India and the Himalayas lives the comical-looking sloth bear. These bears are now believed to number fewer than 10,000 and are declining steadily. Human population growth and accompanying intrusions into bear habitat are the prime threats. Poaching for gall bladders is extensive here, too.

The U.S. government reported that between 728 and 1,548 sloth bears were killed each year during an 11-year period in India to provide gall bladders for the Japanese market.

In South America, the spectacled bear roams in the shrinking wilds of the Andes. Fewer than 50,000 of these bears are believed to remain. Countries such as Venezuela have set aside a greater percentage of their lands for national preserves than the United States or most other countries, but poverty imposes keen pressures on timber habitat. Curiously enough, control of rural areas by drug lords tends to protect some important bear areas from being exploited for resources and recreation.

Amid the gloomy inventory, the bear kingdom offers two genuine success stories.

The American black bear might as well wear the motto: “Never say die.” Until just 15 years ago, black bears were considered pests and bounty hunters were paid to kill them across the West.

But today, more than 500,000 roam wild, a greater number than all other bears of the world combined. Some local black bear populations, such as those in Louisiana and Mexico, are isolated and in trouble. But many other populations are thriving.

The black bear’s success is the result of its greater tolerance for humans, a higher reproductive rate than other bears and its adaptability to varying habitat.

But the black bear is not immune to the Asian demand for gall bladders. Just last month, the Convention of International Trade in Endangered Species meeting in Tokyo imposed international restrictions on the export of black bear parts from North America. U.S. and Canadian delegates opposed the listing, but conservationists applauded the move, which they said would reduce the opportunities for poaching.

In the U.S. Congress, Rep. Helen Delich Bentley (R-Md.) also introduced legislation last month prohibiting the export of any black bear viscera. An aide said she was disturbed by reports of increased black bear poaching in the United States.

The once-threatened polar bear also offers hope for a sustainable bear species, largely the result of conservation efforts. Isolated in the Arctic north and protected by international treaty, the world’s population of these famed meat-hunters is believed to be stable at about 25,000.

A Generation Left

In many regards it is impossible to generalize about bears. But in other ways it is easy.

“We’re not going to convince the people of the world they should save the forests for the bears. We’ve got to convince them to save the forests for their own good. And that will be good for the bear,” said Servheen.

“It’s the same in Malaysia as Burma, as in the U.S. or France. I can close my eyes and beam myself from Libby, Mont., to Lahad Datu, Borneo, and it’s the same economy. It’s a resource-based timber economy. If they run out of timber, they run out of jobs. In Lahad Datu the same as in Libby. And they are.

“We have maybe 20 years. This generation--ours--will be the one that decides the fate of the bear.”

Crowding Out the Bears

The plight of the world’s bears has come to symbolize the shrinking domain of healthy forests, clean water, wildness and freedom. But there is hope for saving them even amid a scarcity of numbers and places for them to roam.

SPECTACLED BEAR

Location: Mountains of South America.

Habits: Mainly nocturnal. Sleeps during day between or under large tree roots, on a tree trunk or in a cave. Frequently climbs large trees to reach fruit.

Contact with humans: In Peru, killed for its meat, skin and fat. Hunted by sportsmen and landowners claiming to protect livestock.

Status: Threatened

ASIATIC BLACK BEAR

Location: Southern Asia.

Habits: Generally nocturnal. Sleeps during day in hollow trees, caves or rock crevices. Climbs expertly to reach fruit and beehives; swims well.

Contact with humans: Highly valued by poachers. Hunted by humans because of its reputation for raids on cornfields and attacks on livestock. Occasional reports of killing humans.

Status: Threatened.

MALAYAN SUN BEAR

Location: Southeast Asia.

Habits: Primarily nocturnal, sleeps and sunbathes during day in tree nest it constructs. An expert climber, cautious, shy and intelligent.

Contact with humans: Considered very dangerous. Can severely damage coconut plantations.

Status: Extremely threatened.

GIANT PANDA

Location: China.

Habits: Primarily nocturnal. Finds shelter in hollow trees, rock crevices and caves. Lives mainly on ground but climbs trees easily.

Contact with humans: Protected by the Chinese government and World Wildlife Fund.

Status: Facing extinction.

BROWN BEAR OR GRIZZLY

Location: Alaska and Canada, Rocky Mountains, Yellowstone and Glacier national parks, Siberia, northern and southern Europe.

Habits: Migrates depending on food sources such as salmon streams and areas with high berry production. Has slow gait but capable of moving very quickly.

Contact with humans: Has reputation of being the most dangerous animal in North America. Prized as big game trophy and subject to regulated sport hunting.

Status: Declining. Endangered in the lower 48 states.

SLOTH BEAR

Location: The Himalayas.

Habits: Primarily nocturnal. Well-developed sense of smell. Sight and hearing relatively poor.

Contact with humans: Considered quite dangerous, but usually attacks only in self-defense. Hunted extensively because of threat to crops.

Status: Extremely threatened.

AMERICAN BLACK BEAR

Location: Canada, Alaska and across many parts of the lower 48 states, from New England to Louisiana.

Habits: Mostly nocturnal. Lumbering walk but can move quickly. Swims and climbs well.

Contact with humans: Subject to regulated hunting in many states.

Status: Stable

POLAR BEAR

Location: From North Pole to as far south as islands in Bering Sea, southern tip of Greenland and Iceland.

Habits: Most active in early part of day. Can outrun a reindeer for short distances. Capable of swimming more than 40 miles across open water.

Contact with humans: Hunted by natives of Arctic for fat and fur. Pelt is very valuable. Polar bears are now protected by strict hunting prohibitions limited to natives only.

Status: Stable.

The Grizzly, Then and Now

The grizzly, or brown bear, has been squeezed out of it habitat in the lower 48 states, except for pockets of Montana, Wyoming, Idaho and Washington.

One shaded area: Distribution of bears before European settlement

Second shaded area: Current distribution

Source: Walker’s Mammals of the World