Changing Number or Condition of Grizzly Bears

Myrtle Johnson of Nome reported, "When we were up at the map yesterday, Jackie (Fagerstrom) was saying that they counted 17 bears. That's way too many bears. The Eskimos just know that there's not enough food for both us and the bears."

Kenneth Toovak, Sr. of Barrow observed, "At one time on Barter Island, they even put collars around the grizzly bears. That's one of the things that I knew during the summer. I was told they had a lot of fun during the summer putting collars on. I didn't want to hear that they were having fun putting collars on the caribou. It caught me off guard and it embarrassed me that they said this. Putting collars on the animals that we love, even on the polar bears and after tranquilizing them, can sometimes diminished their brain right after being tranquilized."

Please go to the next step, possible causes of these concerns.