We like to do science that matters here at the Applied Conservation Science Lab.
That’s why I am so proud of an acutely applied paper being published today at PLOS ONE.
Web link here
Led by our very own Kyle Artelle, PhD Student (formally at SFU), this work assesses the ‘performance’ of grizzly bear ‘mortality management’ in BC. Its also about how managers ought to consider treating uncertainty in wildlife (or fisheries) management – equal parts rigour and caution. So, its a very scholarly and highly quantitative piece that uses BC’s beloved bears as a case study.
Co-authors were Professors John Reynolds and Andy Cooper (SFU), Sean Anderson (PhD Student, SFU) and Dr. Paul Paquet (Raincoast Conservation Foundation and our lab).
Whereas the second part of the paper is pretty dense for the non-specialist reader (a simulation analysis), the first part is really quite straightforward. We just compared how many bears were actually killed by humans to the upper limits deemed ‘sustainable’ by provincial managers (whose policy is to ‘manage mortality’ below those limits).
In short, we documented widespread and frequent ‘overmortality events’. The geographic pattern is revealed in this map.
