I know that bear traps can be used to catch the bear. Are they euthanized by lethal gun shot or are they tranquilized and then given euthanasia?
What happens to the body? Does the body get buried/burnt/sent to decompose in a remote forest?
In: Biology
I don’t know about Canada, but in my city a bear was given euthanasia for the same reasons. Disposal of the bodies when its something uncommon often are either donated to universities for research or just buried on an undisclosed location so no one goes snooping around. This is specially true with species whose body parts are valuable, like elephants or rhinoceros.
My Grandfather used to be a conservation officer and would tell us stories about this sort of thing. But the methods used in the 70’s aren’t the same as today.
Grandpa carried a pistol but it was more for self defense than conservation. If he encountered a dangerous animal that had to be destroyed the tool of choice was a shotgun or larger caliber rifle. Being in a northern community the locals would often help out, and often dealt with the problem before Grandpa even showed up leaving him to clean up and deal with the paperwork.
In the case of a destroyed animal or road kill the Body would be taken to the dump. Dad told me stories of having to pick up partially frozen roadkill moose that were blocking the highway. Cutting up the body for transport often involved a chainsaw…
Grandpa previously gave road kill Moose to poor families in the town, dividing up the carcass appropriately and giving them the associated hunting tag (which were issued and enforced by him anyway) but after a number of complaints of him supposedly showing favoritism to certain families he started taking them to the local dump instead to be buried.
I’m finding it hard to locate information on the specifics of how bears are ‘destroyed’ by conservation officers today as they generally don’t reveal that information publicly.
Today trapping and releasing is preferred, and applies to 80% of bears in particular. The animal is tested for rabies and other diseases prior to release and if clean they are taken far into the wilderness and released. If they are contaminated then the animal is ‘destroyed’.
If the animal is actively dangerous, or people are in imminent danger then they’ll shoot them. For Grizzly and Polar Bears I’ve heard of officers having to use solid slug 12 gauge as anything smaller tends to just piss large bears off…
The bodies are taken away by conservation officers to a facility that also deals with any road kill that’s picked up. In the case of my city its the provincial park just north of the city that incinerates them.
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