Long-term human-carnivore coexistence clearly is possible, facilitated by continued monitoring and local efforts to mitigate conflicts. Although community driven, targeted mitigation measures have helped reduce conflicts with grizzly bears at the site level, conflicts at the broader scale have continued to increase and continued work is necessary. Grizzly bear and cougar conflicts have been expanding into private lands used for agriculture. Complaints for both bear species have increased over the past 16 years while cougar and wolf complaints have remained relatively constant. In contrast, wolf and cougar incidents were almost exclusively related to killing or injury of livestock.
Although grizzly bears killed and injured livestock, the majority of conflicts with bears were attributable to attractants (grain and dead livestock for grizzly bears, garbage for black bears). Conflicts were most frequently associated with bears (68.7% of complaint records), reflecting a diversity of conflict types attributable to their omnivorous diets. We reviewed 16 years of records of complaints about two species of strict carnivores, wolves ( Canis lupus) and cougars ( Puma concolor), and two species of omnivores, grizzly bears ( Ursus arctos) and black bears ( Ursus americanus) in southwestern Alberta and evaluated the temporal and spatial distribution of these complaints. Documenting the type and distribution of such conflicts is an important first step toward ensuring that subsequent management and mitigation efforts are appropriately targeted. Multipredator systems present added complexity to the resolution of human-wildlife conflicts because mitigation strategies often are species-specific. Human-wildlife conflicts are a global conservation and management challenge.