Grizzly bear (Ursus arctos horribilis) conservation in North America is a study in partial success — significant population recovery in some regions, continued decline or extirpation risk in others, and persistent political conflict over management approaches that makes the science difficult to act on even when it is clear.
Current Status: Canada
In Canada, grizzly bears are classified as a species of Special Concern under the federal Species at Risk Act (SARA). The IUCN Red List classifies the North American grizzly population as Least Concern at the continental level, though this obscures significant regional variation.
Canadian population estimates by jurisdiction:
| Province/Territory | Estimated Population | Trend |
|---|---|---|
| British Columbia | 14,000–16,000 | Stable to slight decline |
| Alberta | 700–800 | Increasing (slowly) |
| Yukon | 6,000–7,000 | Stable |
| Northwest Territories | 4,000–5,000 | Stable |
| Nunavut | 1,000–1,500 | Stable |
British Columbia holds the largest provincial population. Alberta’s population is the most studied and most at risk in Canada — occupying a narrow corridor of Rockies habitat bounded by agricultural land to the east and increasingly fragmented by roads and development to the west.
Current Status: United States
In the contiguous United States (the lower 48 states), grizzly bears were federally listed as Threatened under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) in 1975. At that time, the population had declined from an estimated 50,000+ in the pre-European settlement period to approximately 1,000 bears in six small, isolated populations.
Population recovery since 1975 has been substantial in two key ecosystems:
Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE): Approximately 1,000–1,100 bears (2023 estimate). The GYE population was delisted from ESA protection twice (2007 and 2017) and both times had the delisting overturned by federal courts. The population is currently protected and continuing to expand.
Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem (NCDE): Approximately 1,100–1,200 bears (2022 estimate), centred on Glacier National Park and the Bob Marshall Wilderness. The NCDE population is considered functionally recovered and has expanded to areas not occupied for decades.
The four other recovery zones — Cabinet-Yaak, Selkirk, Bitterroot, and North Cascades — hold dramatically smaller populations. The North Cascades ecosystem is at particular risk: as of 2024, confirmed grizzly sightings are rare enough that some researchers consider the ecosystem to have effectively lost its viable population.
Principal Threats
Habitat fragmentation: Roads, railways, energy development, and agricultural conversion reduce habitat connectivity and increase mortality risk. Grizzlies have one of the largest home range requirements of any North American mammal — males commonly travel 1,000–2,000 km² seasonally. When populations become isolated by development, genetic diversity declines and demographic rescue from adjacent populations becomes impossible.
Human-wildlife conflict: Conflict with livestock, beekeeping, and fruiting orchard agriculture generates the majority of “problem bear” removals. Bears that access livestock or agricultural food sources almost always continue the behaviour; management agencies in both Canada and the US remove conflict animals, typically via lethal methods. Conflict-reduction programs (electric fencing, non-lethal deterrents) are effective when implemented but require ongoing coordination and maintenance.
Whitebark pine decline: In the Yellowstone and Northern Rockies, whitebark pine (Pinus albicaulis) seeds are a critical pre-hibernation food source that provides high-caloric fat for hyperphagia. White pine blister rust, mountain pine beetle, and climate-driven range shifts have caused whitebark pine populations to decline 50–98% in portions of the GYE. When whitebark pine fails, Yellowstone grizzlies descend to lower elevations to access other food sources — substantially increasing human-bear conflict frequency.
Trophy hunting: Grizzly bear trophy hunting is legal in parts of British Columbia and Yukon. British Columbia imposed a moratorium on grizzly trophy hunting in 2017 — the bears can still be killed in conflict situations but not as a recreational harvest. Alberta has had no grizzly trophy hunt since 2006. Yukon and NWT continue limited guided hunts.
Poaching: Illegal killing — road shootings, retaliatory killings, and poaching for the Asian traditional medicine market — is a significant source of unrecorded mortality in both Canada and the US. Accurate assessment of its scale is methodologically difficult.
What Recovery Looks Like
The Yellowstone and NCDE populations demonstrate what successful recovery can achieve: bears occupying former range, documented natural dispersal into adjacent areas, stable to increasing population counts. Both populations now face the question of where “recovered” ends and new population establishment begins — a political question as much as a biological one.
The recovery of grizzly bears in the Selkirk ecosystem, connecting to Canadian populations in the Purcell Mountains, and in the North Cascades, potentially reconnecting to British Columbia’s Columbia Mountains population, represents the next frontier of grizzly bear conservation in North America.
For the full natural history context — distribution, diet, reproduction, and where to observe grizzly bears — see the complete Grizzly Bears guide. For backcountry safety in grizzly bear country, see the Bear Safety guide.