The Get Bear Smart Society is pleased to welcome Lori Homstol to the Get Bear Smart team. She will act as scientific advisor. Lori's specialty is bear behaviour and human-bear conflict.

She is a wildlife biologist based in Whistler, BC. Lori began her career as a volunteer on the Eastern Slopes Grizzly Bear Project in Lake Louise, Alberta in 1995 while she was still an undergraduate at the University of Saskatchewan. By 1999, Lori's interests had focused on human-wildlife conflict and she has since been contracted by a number of different agencies. Lori has worked with grizzly bears and black bears in Alberta, British Columbia and Montana, as well as Asian black bears in Japan for the Wind River Bear Institute.

In 2005, Lori was hired to help the BC Ministry of Environment assess the efficacy of non-lethal bear management in Whistler. She is currently completing a Master of Science degree at the University of Alberta. Her thesis is focused on applying theories of how animals learn to make non-lethal management more effective. She has a keen interest in bear behaviour, specifically how it relates to conflict with humans. Her Karelian Bear Dog, Sisko is often by her side contributing to the job at hand.

In addition to working with bears, she has also worked with a number of other wildlife species including small mammals, lynx, cougar, wolverine and wolves. She has also generously volunteered her time on bighorn sheep and mountain goat studies.

Click here to learn more about her research in Whistler.