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This new paper suggests hunter harvest can actually reduce human-bear conflicts, in direct contrast to previous studies: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0237274
#blackbears #hunting #conservation
#blackbears #hunting #conservation
Several past studies that concluded harvest had no effect on bear conflicts did not explicitly consider bear population size, whereas this study did.
They found that bear population size, natural food conditions, and policy shifts combined to influence the number of complaints concerning
human–bear conflicts. But at what cost?
human–bear conflicts. But at what cost?
Harvest also reduced the proportion of prime female bears and skewed the population sex ratio, which reduced the population more and for longer than was apparently intended.
The question remains - how small does a bear population have to get to lower conflicts to an acceptable level? And more importantly, would the public accept the level of bear harvest required to get there?
