At the foothills of Alberta Grizzlies are in danger just as they are across the border in Yellowstone national Park. The story leading to their demise is the same, the more that wild country is cleared the harder it is to keep bears alive. People can live together with the bear by being better educated. Developers can learn where to construct or clear land so that the bears can live. The human use of roads gaining access to areas of former wilderness is the biggest threat, so many are killed near roads,
One researcher noticed that all the bears he had been studying were killed. People knew a bear called Mary from a local town but then she was killed, her radio collar was cut and she was left to rot. Soon after one her killing, her female cub was also shot and killed leaving a male cub alive. Without the cub's mother alive the bear is at greater risk
By smart road planning more bears have a greater chance to survive.
The Wright whale is also being threatened as there are only 300 known to be living in the Northern Atlantic. This whale is on the brink of extinction because of indiscriminate whaling and the capture of fertile females. Whale hunters, if caught should be heavily penalized. Recently WWF filmed how one was caught in fishing net and then gradually that net had cut right to the bone until the animal died.
It does not help if the animal is attractive to the tourist or trinket trade. The Hawksbill has been hunted on Cuba because of its meat, oil and shell, which can be used to make glass frames and hair ornaments. Fishing nets have also been a great cause of this turtle's mortality and if the animal is not found early when entrapped in a net, the animal dies. WWF has developed with a fishing net manufacturer a net that can fall apart if it catches something that it is not supposed to.
Clearly one has to do something to keep these species alive they are part of a greater food chain that would suffer more and our planet would lose a priceless asset.
