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All Coexistence Articles
Well, the bears are waking up in Glacier National Park. Since the start of the month there have been at least three separate track sightings, and at least one bruin was compelled to dig a hole in the Belly River area.
Tracks were spotted by visitors near Many Glacier and Lake McDonald, according to park officials.
“With these early March reports of bear activity, park visitors are reminded to be alert for bear activity and to be familiar with and comply with safety regulations," said Glacier Superintendent Chas Cartwright.
The province's recently released grizzly bear numbers don't tell the full story of what's needed to help Alberta's grizzly populations, Alberta conservationists say.
Jim Pissot, the executive director of Wild Canada Conservation Alliance, and Nigel Douglas, Alberta Wilderness Association conservation specialist, both see the report as a call to the government to limit motorized access to grizzly habitat.
Tuesday, March 9 2010 BRATTLEBORO - State Biologist Forrest Hammond received his first report of bear tracks in the snow last week, and with those reports expected to increase daily, Hammond is reminding people that it is time to take the bird feeders in.
A black bear was killed in Dummerston last year after it was found roaming around a populated area and Hammond wants to keep the same thing from happening this year. "It's getting warm outside and it's time to take the bird feeders down," Hammond said Friday. "The males are wandering around and they are hungry."
A large amount of grain was spilled Friday by a CPR train around 500 metres east of the Banff train station, worrying conservationists about the safety of wildlife.
"The pile has already attracted wildlife to the site," said WildCanada Conservation Alliance's Jim Pissot.
Considering the grizzly bear status report that was released by the Alberta government on March 3, people should do everything they can to keep grizzly bears alive, Pissot said. The report estimates that only 359 mature breeding grizzly bears are found on provincial lands and within Waterton Lakes national park and portions of Banff and Jasper National Park.
LAKE COUNTY, Fla. -- You say bears keep taking your garbage and redistributing it around your yard? Well, do something about it.
At this year's Florida Black Bear Festival, held on March 27, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) have a challenge for everyone.
Figure out a way to keep them out of your garbage. If you can do that, you can win one of three $100 gift card to Lowe's.
A state wildlife agency is reminding Middlesex and Worcester County residents living near black bear habitat to remove bird feeders and other potential food sources before the hungry mammals emerge in coming weeks from hibernation.
FORT WALTON BEACH, Fla. - When Florida's black bears come in contact with humans it often results in a death sentence for the bear involved, but it doesn't have to be that way. An event to let people know about ways to live responsibly in bear country will feature some simple steps residents can take to coexist with the Florida Black Bear.
Dave Telesco, a bear expert with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, says securing trash would be a huge step in the right direction.
An updated grizzly bear status report released today by the Alberta government confirms shockingly low numbers of mature breeding grizzly bears in Alberta and highlights the urgency of reducing the number of grizzly deaths in the province. Conservationists now assert that there is no longer any reason to delay necessary recovery actions, including listing the grizzly as Threatened under the Alberta Wildlife Act, limiting the densities of roads and reducing the amount of motorized access in prime grizzly habitat, and implementing effective public education and conflict prevention programs.
A status report on Alberta’s grizzly bear population and habitat, prepared by an independent scientist, is now available online.
The status report establishes a new baseline of information using the advanced technique of DNA surveys and other data.
The report estimates 691 grizzly bears ranging in density from five to 18 bears per 1000 square kilometres. Some local populations with significant habitat alteration may be declining, other populations appear stable
The North American Bear Center's Web site had 467,000 page views during 2009 - not bad for a 2-year-old operation based in end-of-the-road Ely. But thanks to Lily the hibernating bear, her newborn cub and the world's first live video of a wild black bear birth, the Bear Center has seen more interest in 2010. A lot more. "We had more than 3 million visitors over three weeks in January alone," said Lynn Rogers, longtime Ely bear researcher and the driving force behind the Bear Center.
TAHOE NATIONAL FOREST, Calif. — Jason Holley carefully lowered brother and sister bears into their new homefor winter Wednesday afternoon, hoping when they wake up in the spring, they won't see people again.
The 1-year-old black bear cubs were orphaned last June, when their mother was shot in the Carnelian Bay area. After a few months at the Lake Tahoe Wildlife Care center, Holley, a biologist with the California Department of Fish and Game, along with others from Fish and Game and the staff of the Sagehen Creek Field Station, sent them off into hibernation north of Truckee.
A new Parks Canada report has shown that over the past two decades nearly 23 black bears have been killed annually in the Rocky Mountain national parks.
The report indicates all of the mountain national parks, including Glacier, Revelstoke and Waterton Lakes, saw a total of 477 black bear mortalities between 1990-2009.
As the number of black bears in the US grows, largely due to protection measures taken over the past century, the chances of these animals interacting with humans increase as well. Wildlife authorities managing national parks, where this threat is most severe, turned to science to help them devise the best possible methods of keeping bears away from thrash cans, and therefore reducing the risks of violent encounters with humans. Details of the work appear in the January issue of the respected Journal of Wildlife Management, Wired reports.
VAIL VALLEY, Colorado — Snug in a hollow tree, cave or a shallow nest, black bears in winter in Colorado's Vail Valley may be dreaming dreams of berries and honey and lush meadows of grass during their hibernation.
But female black bears also have something else on their agenda as they lay curled up, enveloped in thick winter fur. If it is mid-January, then they will probably give birth.
I can no longer contain myself. With the latest notice from the Muni in last week's paper (Greetings Olympic Guests) I wonder if we will ever get a handle on the disconnect between disposing of our garbage and our desire to get everyone using public transit? The notice from the Muni lets visitors know that all household garbage must be disposed of at the Nesters site. But how do you get it there? It is not permitted on WAVE transit and most of these visitors have no vehicles.
When one of my sons asked a member of our current council how he could get rid of his garbage without having transport he was advised to hide it in a knapsack and take it on board the bus.
With black bears and grizzly bears roaming around northwestern Montana’s backcountry, interaction with humans will occur from time to time. In an effort to help protect the bears from getting themselves into trouble while increasing safety for campers, Kootenai National Forest this summer plans to install up to 100 bear-proof food storage boxes.Mary Laws, recreation program manager, said such types of food-storage boxes have become common in places like Glacier National Park and Canada.
As with most small mountain towns in BC, Rossland sits squarely in and is surrounded by prime real estate when it comes to our big black friends in the forest. While certainly not desired, it’s not entirely uncommon to see the occasional black bear strolling through town. Rossland has been perhaps lucky over the past number of years to have not had any major bear/human interactions to have resulted in injuries. One probable cause contributing to that and to reducing bear/human interactions in general has been the hard work of the Bear Aware society. Facing an annual funding crunch and fighting for their society’s survival has worn down the folks involved, and the program is in real danger of disappearing from our area.
A new competition is encouraging the designers of wildlife overpasses to think outside the box and create wildlife structures for the next generation.
The first ARC: North American Wildlife Crossing Structure Design Competition, which was announced late last year, is being used to encourage new ideas, materials, methods and thinking.
Dr. Tony Clevenger, a senior wildlife research scientist at the Western Transportation Institute at the Montana State University in Bozeman, said the question is whether overpasses can be built cheaper using recycled and new materials coming onto the market, including plastics and concrete.
CHASE: Teaching them to avoid people works best if conditioning is done right after first contact with human food.
Black bear encounters happen every summer in Alaska, and a new study suggests rubber bullets are the best way to send the bruins packing.
An article in this month's issue of The Journal of Wildlife Management based on a four-year study in California's Sequoia National Park says shooting black bears with rubber slugs from a 12-gauge shotgun is most effective -- better than pepper spray, chasing them off or hitting them with rocks. Researchers detailed 1,050 instances of so-called aversive conditioning on more than 150 bears, some of which had become accustomed to human food
A confrontation with a bear in Allegany County is going to cost a Niagara Falls reservist a week’s salary but he hopes, at least, the incident may serve as a cautionary tale to anyone confronting a wild beast in the woods.
Michael Moore, who has done two stints in Iraq with the Army and is now an Air Force reservist, said he could have been fined up to $2,000 and spent time in jail for killing a bear while hunting this past November in Allegany county.
The bear came up upon Moore in the woods in Birdsall on opening day of deer hunting season November 21.
“I sat there for a good thirty seconds, to see if he would go away,” Moore said as he recalled the incident from his Niagara Falls home in Cayuga Village. “I turned to my right and fired a warning shot.”
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