Grizzly bears targeted to protect G8

Security for the world's most powerful politicians is difficult enough these days. There are the constant threat of al-Qaeda fanatics and hordes of anti-globalisation protesters hammering at the barricades.

Now a new danger has emerged. It stands more than 7ft tall, weighs up to 850lb and its clawed paws can rip a car door from its hinges with a single swipe. It is ursus horribilis, better known as the grizzly bear.

When Tony Blair and seven other global leaders meet for a G8 summit next month in the Canadian Rockies, it is the local wildlife that will cause the security headaches, not international terrorism.

In fact, authorities are so mindful of the furry threat that they have embarked on a controversial scheme to hunt and catch dozens of grizzlies ahead of the two-day meeting.

The operation to track down the bears is massive. It will involve helicopters carrying snipers equipped with dart guns and numerous traps and baits placed outside bear dens.

The aim is to catch as many bears as possible in the 2,500 sq mile Kananaskis wilderness in which the summit will be held. The bears will then be fitted with radio collars that will allow wildlife experts to monitor their movements and warn security officers if a grizzly is approaching any of the world leaders tucked up inside their luxury holiday lodges.

If bears do approach, teams of specially imported Karelian hunting dogs will be used to send them running back into the woods.

'It is as much to protect the bears as to protect the humans,' said Jon Jorgenson, a wildlife biologist for Alberta's Department of Sustainable Resource Development, who is heading the operation.

International summits are increasingly avoiding cities after the Genoa riots last year in which one anti-globalisation protester was killed. However, planners behind the Kananaskis summit reckoned without the local grizzly population, which are starting to hunt after hibernating through the long Canadian winter.

The hundreds of shade-wearing security personnel brought to the summit have all received briefing packs on how to deal with grizzlies. If they see one they have been told to back away slowly and radio for help. They have orders not to shoot them or to run. 'Running is the worst thing you can do with a grizzly. If you have already scared it by being there, it will probably just run right after you,' Jorgenson said.

The scheme has been condemned by some animal welfare experts. Human encounters with grizzlies are rare and the last one in which people were injured in Kananaskis was two years ago when two mountain bikers ran into a feeding bear. There are now just 800 grizzlies left in Alberta, down from 8,000 a century ago.

Brian Horejsi, a wildlife biologist in Calgary who specialises in grizzlies, said the scheme would be traumatic for the bears. 'They're just coming out of their dens at this time of the year, so they're hungry, skinny and stressed. Every time you immobilise and handle a bear you're traumatising it,' he said.

Wildlife bodies in Britain also expressed concerns about the plans and questioned the wisdom of holding a diplomatic summit in an environmentally sensitive wilderness. 'I think they should be holding the summit in a city. That would make more sense,' said a spokesman for the World Wildlife Fund. The Royal Society for the Protection of Animals agreed.

But grizzlies are not the only four-legged threat to the world leaders gathered in Kananaskis. Security men have also received information on what to do when faced with wolves and cougars. Yet even those predators pale in comparison with the biggest danger of all: pregnant moose. 'They have just started to calve and can get really protective over their young. An angry moose could chase you right up a tree,' Jorgenson said.