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All Prevention Articles
The death of Brian Matayoshi in a grizzly bear charge last summer was a classic conundrum for the people who work toward the day bears and humans can share the northern Rocky Mountains. "We are providing education, but it's not being received," Chris Servheen told the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee at its winter meeting in Missoula on Wednesday. As coordinator for grizzly recovery with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Servheen keeps track of bear incidents throughout the Rocky Mountains. And this year's run-ins appear to show we have successful strategies to avoid conflict, but we're not using them.
In July, a grizzly defending her cubs attacked a couple hiking in Yellowstone National Park, it killing the man.
Again in Yellowstone, a man hiking alone was fatally mauled by a grizzly bear in August. In September, a Montana black bear hunter was attacked by a grizzly bear he mistakenly wounded. The guy's hunting partner tried to save him but ended up shooting and killing him.
Three bear cubs are learning to live without their mother, who was shot by conservation officers after the foursome was found foraging for food in a Coquitlam schoolyard last week. The nine-month-old cubs are now adjusting to their temporary home at Critter Care Wildlife Society in Langley.
Vacation homeowners in Elkford, B.C., have been asked to search for white bear fur that may have caught on their decks or trees, to help scientists discover the genetic secrets of three white bear cubs seen in the town this fall.
Residents are also being urged to clear their garbage and fruit trees to stop the rare bears becoming hooked on human food sources.
A new online map is giving people in Kamloops a way to keep tabs on bears making their way into the city.
The map shows all bear sightings reported to conservation officers over the past two weeks, as well as the food sources that lured the animals into the city.
CALGARY - Some of the world's foremost bear experts are looking at new ways to prevent grizzlies from getting killed along railway tracks inside Banff National Park.
A dozen bears have been killed and a half dozen cubs orphaned in the last decade and experts estimate there are now only between 45 and 60 grizzlies left in the park.
Last year, Alberta reclassified the species as threatened because of rapidly dwindling numbers.
Local black bear researchers are predicting a wave of increased bear activity in the Village and valley this fall due to the worst berry crop Whistler has seen in almost two decades.
Experts are pleading with locals to be extra careful by safely disposing of garbage, not having bird feeders, keeping dog food inside and keeping areas around the house clean.
For more than two decades, Simon Jackson's life has centred on 400 bears. When he was 7, he saw his first wild bear, a Kodiak, while on a camping trip with his parents. The camping trip ignited Mr. Jackson's interest in bears and at the age of 13 he began his 16-year campaign to save the spirit bear, also known as the Kermode bear, named after Frank Kermode, former director of the Royal B.C. Museum in Victoria.
A California hiker killed by a grizzly in Yellowstone National Park on July 6 - the first fatal bear mauling in Yellowstone in a quarter century, and one of two attacks in the park this year - may have unwittingly provoked the bear by screaming and running away, according to a final report released Tuesday.
The park report suggested that the 58-year-old victim, Brian Matayoshi, of Torrance, California, might have survived his encounter if he and his wife, Marylyn, had heeded posted advisories.
Learn how to stay always be alert and aware while camping in Bear Country.
This summer in Yellowstone National Park, on two separate occasions, two men sadly lost their lives from deadly encounters with grizzly bears. Both of these men did not carry bear pepper spray, and if they would have, they would likely still be alive. As autumn approaches and the leaves begin to change, its time to look at some other changes that will prevent the brutal loss of life that Yellowstone has experienced this year.
Thank God for the bear spray.
Without it, Kevin and Julie Boyer probably wouldn't be alive. Instead, they'd have likely shared the fates of two other hikers who were attacked and killed by grizzly bears this summer inside Yellowstone National Park.
But they did have bear spray. They survived. And they're here to share their story.
INCLINE VILLAGE, Nev. — Nothing evokes the passion of a certain sect of Lake Tahoe residents quite like the issue of black bear management. Nevada's re cent legalization of the state's first bear hunt, coupled with the killing of a nuisance bruin in July that was captured in the Raley's parking lot, has inspired some residents to band together to formulate solutions.
While NoBearHuntNV.org is a formal organization created to oppose the bear hunt, the latest movement to center on bruin issues is more informal, consisting of a handful of local residents who are taking it upon themselves to photograph trash re ceptacles that are out of compliance with the Incline Village General Improvement District's trash ordinance.
Bears accessing recycling bins around Whistler Village this season is bringing concerns about bear-proof bins to the surface again.
"It can potentially be an issue," said conservation officer, Sgt. Chris Doyle, "and the more we can do to prevent to address human wildlife conflict the better, obviously - but an issue like this is a bigger problem (than can be addressed) in a short period of time."
Relying on "black gold" to nourish their Greater Trail gardens has led a couple of friends to creating bear-proof composters.
Now, after solving their own critter problems, a team of gardeners swears by their smell-resistant composters that not only look attractive in their backyard but also keep the bears away.
GULL LAKE -- Cottagers in bear country have plenty of anecdotal evidence to support the controversial theory that feeding black bears can keep them away from populated areas.
At this cottage development southeast of Grand Beach, Helen Toews and her neighbour, Alice Nixdorf, said bears regularly walk through their development at least twice day -- early morning and late afternoon.
But Nixdorf said bears weren't a problem here until officials closed the local dump.
WINNIPEG - A wildlife biologist from Minnesota says black bear problems this summer can be solved without killing any more bears.
Lynn Rogers, director of the Wildlife Research Institute and the North American Bear Centre in Ely, Minnesota, said studies show that putting food out for bears at a designated site - a practice known as diversionary feeding - can keep black bears away from populated areas but doesn't condition the bears to human food.
BANFF, Alta. - It's been a deadly year so far, for wildlife in the national and provincial parks of the Rocky Mountains.
In all, 10 bears have been killed by humans in Banff, Kootenay and Yoho national parks, and three of those were grizzly bears hit by cars or trains.
And while not dead, another grizzly is lost from the local population after it was relocated to a more remote region of Alberta for killing a sheep dangerously close to where children were sleeping at Camp Chief Hector in Bow Valley Provincial Park.
You may have read about the Spirit Bears of the Great Bear Rainforest in Kermode Bears or in Pipeline Through Paradise both featured in the August 2011 National Geographic Magazine. These articles feature images by Paul Nicklen and were supported by imagery from an expedition to the Great Bear Rainforest September 2010 with the International League of Conservation Photographers. See what it takes to capture stunning imagery in this wild landscape with a behind the scenes footage and interview with Paul Nicklen here and an eyewitness account of this amazing ecosystem and the people and wildlife that call if home with photographer and conservationist Ian Mc
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