An effort by the Alberta government to protect its grizzly bear population may be too successful.

A number of close calls and videos showing the animals near livestock have some musing about reinstating the long-banned grizzly hunt.

Nicholas Lagarde, who has been a rancher near Pincher Creek, Alta., for six years now, says he’s never seen as many grizzly bears on his property as he has in the last few months.

“This year has been the craziest for us. We’ve seen 16 individual grizzly bears,” he said.

“Everyone has seen that the population has now increased and now there’s definitely a lot more conflicts in the area.”

His livestock guardian dog, Fenrir, is specially trained to keep his cattle safe. Still, there have been close calls, including last spring when a bear charged at Lagarde’s

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