Sunday 12 November 2006
A study commissioned by the state Department of Environmental Protection says it would be expensive and ineffective to try to control New Jersey’s black bear population using birth control, according to a published report. The study, An Analysis of the Feasibility of Using Fertility Control to Manage New Jersey Black Bear Populations , written by three experts in wildlife contraception, comes as Gov. Jon S. Corzine is considering whether the state should go ahead with a bear hunt this December or whether it should explore other options to control the number of bears. “Fertility control does not look like a viable option,” one of the report’s authors, Mark A. Fraker, a wildlife biologist with TerraMar Environmental Research in Ashland, Ore., told The Star-Ledger of Newark for Wednesday’s newspapers.

According to the study, capturing bears so they could then be sterilized or given a fertility vaccine would be prohibitive because it costs about $1,000 per animal to snare them. Also, while the birth control efforts have worked on deer and wild horses, the wildlife experts said they have never been tried on bears in the wild.

New Jersey’s bears are concentrated in the northwestern part of the state but have been spotted in all of New Jersey’s 21 counties.Proponents of a black bear hunt say it is the only method to control the animals’ numbers and to limit contact between the bears and humans. But opponents of the hunt say the state should put more effort into keeping the bears away from garbage such as requiring residents to use bear-resistant waste containers.

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/15902458.htm

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read a more detailled analysis

The study says the idea of “fertility control” (birth control) for population control is “very unlikely to be a feasible means of managing black bear populations in New Jersey.”

The TerraMar Environmental Research report points out that proposed catch-and-release methods of population control favored by animal rights advocates would be “unlikely to succeed” because of a variety of factors. Those including bear intelligence, range, and the abundance of bears in New Jersey that virtually assures failure of a comprehensive effort to use “fertility control” methods on a widely dispersed bear population.

There is another point the study makes regarding the idea of capturing and either chemically neutering boars or administering chemical birth control drugs to sows: capturing bears is expensive. According to statistics quoted in the report, the cost of capturing a bear (according to 2005 Fish & Game Commission reports) is approximately $1,000 per bear. That number, according to the report, would be an extremely conservative cost estimate for a number of factors:

“Because current research staff do not intend to capture all or even most of the bears in a particular area, the bears that are being captured presently are the most vulnerable. If there were an intention to capture a large proportion of the bears in an area, the costs / bear would increase significantly as more time and effort are needed to catch trap-shy individuals. Different age and sex classes of bears may be more vulnerable to trapping than others. For example, it may be easier to capture juvenile bears than adults. Because of their large home ranges and wariness, adult male bears may be the most difficult animals to capture.”

Additionally, the report points out that it would be totally chaotic to the social structure of the bear population to even consider sterilization techniques on the dominant male population. Additionally the report says that the black bear social structure, based on dominant males and breeding females, would simply adjust to move younger or less powerful bears into the dominant role due to their ability to breed. Consequently, efforts would have to be concentrated on the female black bear population. That adds an additional complicating factor to the already challenging goal of capturing significant enough numbers of bears to impact the overall population. The report also reminds readers that even if the capture of female bears were possible, there would be regulatory hurdles to overcome. In fact, any attempt to chemically control the female population would require the United States Food and Drug Administration to issue an “Investigational New Animal Drug exemption.” That exemption would be required because “There are no contraceptives that are specifically approved for bears or any other wildlife species.” (”An Analysis of the Feasibility of Using Fertility Control to Manage New Jersey Black Bear Populations” page 30)

The report does, however, say there are “a few exceptions” where products approved for one species can be prescribed for use in another at the discretion of a licensed veterinarian, although contraceptives are not included in those exceptions.

This report challenges the efficacy of using contraception as a means of controlling the black bear population of New Jersey, or anywhere else. It does, however, provide another illustration to reinforce the claim of wildlife managers who complain that when it comes to wildlife management, facts have very little to do with the decision-making process.

When it comes down to wildlife management, science appears to have very little chance at prevailing in the face of animal rights organizations that possess the same information, yet use emotion and political influence to overcome the facts and achieve their goal.

New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine and his staff are not unaware of this study, or the facts in the matter. It would appear that the decision not to hold this year’s black bear hunt is more a political favor to the animal rights movement than a decision based on what is best for either the black bears or the citizens of New Jersey.

The report’s final sentence concludes: “Although fertility control has shown considerable promise for managing certain wildlife populations, such as urban deer, attempting to manage bear populations in this manner would be very difficult and expensive, and would almost certainly fail. ” Unfortunately, the facts have very little to do with political reality.