Researchers hope video cameras mounted to the front of trains will reveal why so many grizzlies are being killed on the tracks in the mountain parks - Date unknown Steve Michel.

4 March 2013

Video Cameras Enlisted in Effort to Protect Grizzlies from Trains

Banff Alberta - GoPro cameras are used by skiers, surfers, mountain bikers, kayakers, and paragliders to record their adventures.
 
And now that same technology is being used to try to figure out why so many grizzly bears are being hit and killed by trains in Banff and Yoho national parks.
 
Officials say 15 video cameras have been mounted on the front of trains to record how bears react and what they are doing, including if they are feasting on spilled grain, when a train hurtles toward them.
 
Brianna Burley, a resource conservation specialist for Lake Louise, Yoho, and Kootenay, said the overall goal is to explain what bears are doing as a train approaches that leads to either their death or escape, and if their location could influence this behaviour.
 
"I'm looking at bear behaviour and looking at how bears interact with trains, and if a behavioural reaction to a train may have more to do with various sites," said Burley, who is also master's student in geography and biology with the University of Calgary.
 
"Then I am going into the field to look at those sites where these behavioural interactions took place to see if there's anything I can determine that may have affected the animal's behaviour."
 
Burley's research is under the supervision of the University of Calgary's Dr. Ralph Cartar and Dr. Dianne Draper. It's part of the joint $1-million Parks Canada-Canadian Pacific Railway plan to reduce grizzly bear mortality.
 
The train tracks are the single biggest source of human-caused grizzly bear mortality in the mountain national parks, killing more than 10 in Banff National Park over the past decade. There are about 60 bears in the park.
 
The last recorded railway mortality in Banff involved two young yearlings, who were struck and killed by a train about 10 kilometres west of the Banff townsite last October.
 
The young grizzlies had just returned to the busy Bow Valley with their mother, known as bear No. 130, from the remote Cascade Valley, where they had spent most of the summer.
 
The long-term conservation of grizzly bears in the mountain parks is considered vital, particularly given the population on neighbouring provincial lands in Alberta is threatened. There are less than 700 in the province.
 
Burley said the cameras first went up last July and she was able to get out for her first season of fieldwork last summer, with the cameras recording 30 animal observations.
 
But this year she is hoping to get more valuable data because the cameras will be on the trains in April as bears come out of hibernation and head to lower elevations in search of food, including grain on the tracks.
 
Male grizzlies in Banff typically begin emerging from their dens in the first couple of weeks in March, with females and their young ones come out a little later in the spring.
 
Of last year's 30 recorded animal observations on the train tracks from the cameras, 23 were black bears, and three were grizzly bears. The remaining four were ungulates.
 
Burley's research aims to determine if bears are more likely to be killed by a train if there is spilled grain on the tracks or a rich food source available nearby.
 
As well, she is trying to figure out if escape routes could be compromised by natural terrain, such as steep slopes, or by human infrastructure like bridges.
 
Burley said she is studying whether bears are more likely to be killed if opportunities to detect a train are poor, for example, if the train is fast moving, or there's poor longitudinal visibility along the tracks.
 
Lastly, she said, she hopes the video recordings and her fieldwork will determine if a bear's initial fleeing behaviour will affect the outcome, whether the bear is struck or killed.
 
Burley said it is too early to draw any conclusions based on her research, but hopes the results will help inform decisions about how to reduce and hopefully eliminate unnecessary bear deaths on and along the tracks.
 
"I hope that what we learn from those interactions will help with future mitigations on the railways," Burley said.
 
Other projects on the go as part of the joint Parks Canada-Canadian Pacific action plan include putting GPS collars on 11 grizzlies last spring so their movements could be closely monitored.
 
Other studies underway include vegetation clearing, investigation of off-site enhancements like fire to draw bears away from tracks, and a grain taste aversion trial.
 
Cathy Ellis.

Vancouver Island
British Columbia
Canada