Shattered Minds: Trauma scarring the lives of bears

This is a treacherous land; many Bears perish when hit by cars or trains. Countless others are killed in the name of the spurious rationale to ensure public safety. Here, human ignorance becomes evident. Matters of life and death get decided based on whether a Bear touched garbage or peeked into someone’s window. A Bear spotted rummaging in the backyard or crossing the street is not seen as a creature whose native home was erased but as a dangerous 'pest'. One call from a fearful resident is enough to end a sentient life.

GOSIA BRYJA: We often think of trauma as a human prerogative, but it is a malady that we share with other sentient beings. This is why Rats, Mice, and now even Octopuses are used in place of people in experiments ethically banned for humans. Nonhumans are used to find out how the human brain, mind, and body function because all animals share the same capacities to think, feel, and experience consciousness. Indeed, we may look different on the outside, but inside, we are the same.

This is why Bears, Elephants, Deer, Orcas, and other Wildlife develop Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). This understanding led Dr. Gay Bradshaw to pioneer the field of trans-species psychology, encompassing neuroscience, psychology, and evolutionary biology. Bradshaw challenges the socially constructed boundaries separating humans from nonhuman animals. Her exploration of shared similarities in brain structures across species serves as a lens to examine the toll of PTSD.

In her book Elephants on the Edge: What Animals Teach Us About Humanity, Bradshaw explores how human-caused violence caused the breakdown of African Elephant culture. These giant herbivores, revered for their peaceful nature, crack “under the grief and shock of seeing their families gunned down, ivory tusks ripped off still-breathing bodies.” Traumatic experiences, resulting from culling, poaching, and habitat loss, lead to enduring psychophysiological changes in the Elephant brain and behaviour. Traumatized Elephants exhibit symptoms reminiscent of human PTSD, including hyper-aggression, asocial behaviour, and depression. None of this is surprising. PTSD, Bradshaw asserts, “is a natural response to unnatural conditions”…

What applies to humans and Elephants also applies to Bears. Their emotional complexity makes them prone to psychological scars. Bears are not solitary, aloof animals, as often portrayed, but, instead, they exhibit remarkably intricate social relationships based on alliances formed with other Bears. Once established, these social rules enable them to thrive within overlapping home ranges. Bears, Benjamin Kilham writes, “are part of sophisticated societies that we are only beginning to understand.” They have different types of social behaviour that parallel human social behaviour…

When such sentient beings confront a violent world, physical and emotional wounds are bound to accumulate. Again, as Bradshaw writes in Talking with Bears: Conversations with Charlie Russell, “Dwindling habitat and a sustained policy of shoot on sight have created ‘unhappy Bears,’ individuals stressed and traumatized by witnessing their Mothers killed and being targets themselves of ranchers and trophy hunters, generation after generation. Most methods used to ‘manage’ and ‘conserve’ Bears exacerbate the situation. Noisemakers, ears splitting ‘Bear jammer’ sirens, rubber bullets, darting, trapping, translocation, and death have worked their way into Bear minds and society.”

This is a treacherous land; many Bears perish when hit by cars or trains. Countless others are killed in the name of the spurious rationale to ensure public safety. Here, human ignorance becomes evident. Matters of life and death get decided based on whether a Bear touched garbage or peeked into someone’s window. A Bear spotted rummaging in the backyard or crossing the street is not seen as a creature whose native home was erased but as a dangerous “pest.” One call from a fearful resident is enough for a B.C. Conservation Officer Service to end a sentient life.

Seen in its entirety, the death toll is horrifying. Between 2011 and 2023, almost 6,500 Black Bears and over 200 Grizzly Bears were killed by conservation officers in British Columbia. Such an unimaginable slaughter enacted in the name of public safety is neither ethically nor scientifically justified. Instead, it’s cruelty for cruelty’s sake…

So much death, so much carnage. But this is not all. There is also trauma that casts a long shadow on animals that didn’t die. Like an invisible current, it courses through the veins of Bear societies, leaving an indelible mark on their collective psyche. Some Bears manage to escape to the forest, where they stagger aimlessly with multiple bullets in their flesh, sometimes even in their skulls. Those who survive with grievous wounds will suffer from the physical and emotional pain of human-inflicted trauma.

Not only they will suffer, though. When a female Bear perishes, orphaned cubs are left behind. They grapple with the trauma of witnessing her Mother’s tragic fate — whether it was the result of the blast of a gun or a collision with a vehicle. They are left alone, fearful, uncertain, and vulnerable in the hostile world. Each year, yet another score of Bears will traverse the world with a wounded psyche, the living legacy of human indifference and cruelty…

A reciprocal relationship needs to take place. By respecting animals’ needs and challenging the culture of killing that leaves only death and trauma in its trail, we can ensure that coexistence becomes a reality. A genuine coexistence that fully unfolds the mystery of life and allows for a kinder relationship with our carnivore kin. It can happen, it should happen. Indeed, it must happen for the true potential of who they are and who we are to flourish. SOURCE…

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