According to the Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance’s 2022-2023 Teton County Human-Wildlife Coexistence Monitoring Report, human-bear conflicts in Teton County dropped significantly in 2022 with a total of 41 conflicts.
The Report, which used the Wyoming Game and Fish Department as a source, confirms there were over double the amount of conflicts in 2021, with a total of 103. The numbers for 2022 are closer to 2020, when there were 42 human-bear conflicts reported.
Since 2015, a higher conflict year followed by a lower conflict year, then followed by a higher conflict year, has been the trend.
Of the 2022 conflicts, 37 were black bear conflicts and four were grizzly bear conflicts. One bear was removed from the population.
County-wide bear regulations went into effect last year on July 1, and this year the Town of Jackson implemented similar regulations within a Bear Conflict Zone starting April 1. The Report says 603 bear-resistant cans are in use from 2018, addressing how access to food is the primary driver of human-bear conflicts.
But despite the 2022 regulations and conflict reduction, the Report emphasizes that shrinking habitat, an increasing development footprint and rising populations predict interactions between grizzly bears and humans will increase in the future, especially on private lands.
The Report recommends including Traditional Ecological Knowledge in management decisions.
Source: Buckrail
