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Big Game: Grizzly Bears
Grizzly bears inhabit the entire Yukon from the B.C. border to Herschel Island off the Arctic coast. Since the Yukon’s northern interior environment is less productive than southern or coastal environments, our bears are spread fairly thin over the landscape. The territorial population is estimated at 6,000 to 7,000 animals.
Wildlife managers are working to reduce the harvest of female bears and the number of nuisance bears that are destroyed each year. The reproductive rate of the species is so low that the loss of a few female bears can have a significant impact on a population.
One Grizzly Bear Every Three Years
The bag limit for grizzly bears in all open subzones is one bear every three licence years. This means if you shoot a grizzly bear in the 2008-09 season you cannot take another grizzly anywhere in the Yukon until the 2011-12 season.
Defending Life or Property
If you are forced to kill a bear in defence of life or property, you must report the kill to a Conservation Officer as soon as possible. You will be required to submit the head and the pelt with claws attached.
North Slope Grizzly Bear Study
The Yukon government, in partnership with Parks Canada and the Aklavik Hunters and Trappers Committee, began a six-year-long grizzly bear population study on the Yukon North Slope in 2004. The project will provide information on population size, birth rate, death rate, where bears can be found at different times of the year, and how much they move around. It will also include a review of harvest activity in the North Slope area.
The study includes interviews with local residents, harvest data, DNA mark-recapture work, and radio collars.