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All Whistler Articles
For restaurant staff and managers: learn how to minimize human-bear conflict at your workplace. Download valuable manuals, staff quiz and our declaration of coexistence.
On behalf of our furry friends and neigh-bears, consider a contribution of just $10 to buy a tree and save bears lives. If you can help buy more trees...all the better, buy a grove if you can! Follow this link to learn more about our Habitat Replacement Program. Donations are gratefully received online at www.bearsmart.com/donate and are tax-receiptable within the year they are received.
What it really means to be a Bear Smart Community
Apr 19, 2011 — Web Page: Got Garbage?
No vehicle to get to the compactor site? Find out how to get rid of your garbage.
The author tested the efficacy of aversive conditioning (AC) and conditioned taste aversion (CTA) on American black bears (Ursus americanus) in Whistler, British Columbia. The study used AC (rubber bullets fired from a shotgun and marbles fired from a sling shot) in an attempt to increase bear wariness toward humans and decrease the time bears spend in human developments. Thiabendazole, an emetic with low toxicity, was used to teach bears to associate illness with specific attractants that cause human-bear conflict.
Conflict with humans poses a serious risk to the viability of carnivore populations worldwide. Identifying effective non-lethal management strategies demands an understanding of the interplay among multiple drivers of conflict at the scale of conflict situations. I quantified the spatial patterns of human-bear conflict in Whistler, Canada with utilization distributions of conflict incidents. I examined the strength of evidence for the effects of landscape and habitat variables associated with conflict using Resource Utilization Functions, Generalized Least Squares, and model selection. Seasonality emerged as a determinant of spatial variability of conflict with bears using more concentrated attractants in the fall than in the summer or spring. No covariates could be identified as drivers of conflict at a local scale despite the pressing need to design management interventions at this scale. This lack of predictability underscores the necessity for responsive adaptive management policies to reduce human-carnivore conflict in increasingly human-dominated landscapes.
Download brochures and flyers for home, play or your business. These are specifically designed for Whistler residents, businesses and visitors.
Recently, the Grizzly Bear Outreach Project (GBOP) team skyped Get Bear Smart to learn more about creating bear smart communities in Washington. I'm sure many of you have the same questions, so I thought I'd provide a summary of the conversation.
An unbeatable combination of incredible photography and thought-provoking writing makes A Whistler Bear Story a rare and magical journey into a world few people know.
Analyzing the influence of habitat, reproductive class and season on the location of black bear conflict sites in Whistler, B.C.
Get Bear Smart partnered with the Habitat Improvement Team (HIT) to plant another 100 mountain-ash trees (sorbus sitchensis) on Whistler Mountain. This brings the total number of mountain-ash planted on Whistler and Blackcomb Mountains in the past two years to over 350.
British Columbia's Bear Smart Community Program was developed to be a proactive response to increased numbers of conflicts between people and bears. The program has two phases: the problem analysis phase and the solution/implementation phase. The community of Whistler has been actively engaged in proactive initiatives to reduce and prevent human-bear conflicts from as far back as 1995. Concerned about the sharp rise in conflicts, the Whistler Black Bear Task Team was formed in 1997, and produced the Black Bear Management Plan in 1998. In 2004, bear biologist Wayne McCrory wrote a Bear Hazard Assessment (phase 1) for Whistler. In 2005, McCrory produced a follow-up Bear-People Conflict Prevention Plan (phase 2), which was presented to council, but not adopted. Subsequently, further conflict management reports have been produced to address human-bear conflicts in Whistler. While these proposed human-bear conflict management plans have not been adopted, each has served to further Whistler's desire and efforts to be designated a Bear Smart Community.
See how Whistler scored in terms of meeting the six criteria for becoming a BearSmart Community.
The Whistler Bear Working Group is a group of stakeholders who meet regularly to minimize human-bear conflict in the community.
Jul 29, 2009 — Web Page: Research
In 2005, the B.C. Conservation Officer Service, along with the B.C. Conservation Foundation, funded a project to investigate the efficacy of non-lethal bear management in Whistler, for application to other jurisdictions. Specifically, we investigated how bears responded to AC, a process of hitting bears with rubber bullets to make them more wary of humans and human developments.
Jun 14, 2009 — Web Page: Contact Us
We welcome your input and feedback, as well as your support.
Get Bear Smart relies on the financial and in-kind support of numerous individuals, organizations, foundations and businesses.
Jun 14, 2009 — Web Page: Our Partners
Get Bear Smart ensures broad community participation by involving all stakeholders in the planning, management and implementation of our programs.
Since its inception as the Jennifer Jones Whistler Bear Foundation in 1995, the Get Bear Smart Society has been working hard to make Whistler, the South Coast, and the rest of British Columbia a safer place for both bears and people.
Jun 14, 2009 — Web Page: What We Do
Our goal is to minimize human-bear conflicts so people and bears can coexist wherever their homes and home ranges overlap.
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