Grizzly and polar bears as nonconsumptive cultural keystone species

Abstract

Grizzly bears and polar bears often serve as ecological “flagship species” in conservation efforts, but although consumptively used in some areas and cultures they can also be important cultural keystone species even where not hunted. We extend the application of established criteria for defining cultural keystone species to also encompass species with which cultures have a primarily nonconsumptive relationship but that are nonetheless disproportionately important to well-being and identity. Grizzly bears in coastal British Columbia are closely linked to many Indigenous Peoples (including the Haíɫzaqv (Heiltsuk), Kitasoo/Xai’xais, and Nuxalk First Nations), where they are central to the identity, culture, and livelihoods of individuals, families, Chiefs, and Nations. Polar bears in Churchill, Manitoba, provide another example as a cultural keystone species for a mixed Indigenous and non-Indigenous community in which many of the livelihood benefits from the species are mediated by economic transactions in a globalized tourism market. We discuss context specificity and questions of equity in sharing of benefits from cultural keystone species. Our expanded definition of cultural keystone species gives broader recognition of the beyond-ecological importance of these species to Indigenous Peoples, which highlights the societal and ecological importance of Indigenous sovereignty and could facilitate the increased cross-cultural understanding critical to reconciliation.

Ecological and Public Advantages of a Dual Flagship Strategy: Giant Panda and Snow Leopard

“…This underscores the flagship species strategy's role in broader biodiversity conservation. Moreover, flagship species like the giant panda, African elephant (Loxodonta africana) [42], polar bear (Ursus maritimus) [43], chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) [44], and monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) [45], due to their iconic status and broad appeal, have significantly contributed to raising public awareness about critical ecological challenges and the urgency of conservation actions.…”

Of Rarity and Symbolism: Understanding Human Perceptions of Charismatic Color Morphs

“…We examine how a combination of scarcity, symbolism, lore, and individualism interacts to influence the ways people respond to wildlife with charismatic coloration. We focus on four taxa (coyotes, eastern gray squirrels, and black-tailed and white-tailed deer) to identify whether treatment of 1 'Spirit bears' are leucistic black bears (Ursus americanus kermodei) in the Great Bear Rainforest of British Columbia, Canada, where, according to the Kitasoo/Xai'Xais people, Raven, the trickster (Wee'get) and creator of all living things made the Kermode bear as a physical reminder of the ice and snow that once covered the land during the ice age (Service et al, 2020;Clark et al, 2021;Henson et al, 2022).…”

Sharing the World With Bears: Conflict and Coexistence in the Siberian Taiga

“…As a feature of Khanty culture, bears certainly seem to fit Garibaldi and Turner's definition of Cultural Keystone Species (CKS) as those"culturally salient species that shape in a major way the cultural identity of a people, as reflected in the fundamental roles these species have in diet, materials, medicine, and/or spiritual practices" (Garibaldi & Turner, 2004; see also Cristancho & Vining, 2004), and thus should be accounted for in conservation planning and as a useful indicator of social-ecological systems (Berkes et al, 2003). Although the "multiple use" criterion of CKS tends to favor consumptive over non-consumptive uses (Clark et al, 2021), among the Khanty and Mansi, Bears would seem to satisfy all the criteria outlined for evaluating the significance of a species as a CKS.…”