Bearspotting

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

By Melanie Stein

It’s that time of year, when bears begin to wake from a winter of restful hibernation.
It’s also the time of year when cabin fever sets in among valley residents and we begin to itch to hike, bike and get outside. This concurrence can lead to interactions between humans and black or grizzly bears.

The Jackson/Pinedale office of the Wyoming Game and Fish Department will host a community workshop titled “Staying Safe in Bear, Lion and Wolf Country” 6:30-9:30 p.m. on Tuesday at Snow King Resort’s Teton Room.

“The bottom line with these workshops is that they’re not about delisting, and they’re not about the political end of these large predators,” Game and Fish Public Information Specialist Mark Gocke said.

“What we really want to do more than anything is prevent conflicts out there on the ground. What I would like to do is dispel fear as much as anything. If people come away with more fear, than I’ve failed.”

In Wyoming, we experience an average of 150 bear conflicts per year outside the national parks. In Jackson Hole alone, where people and bears live on the same landscape, there were 118 conflicts between 2001 and 2005.

A bear conflict is defined as an interaction between bears, people and their property that results in damage to livestock, non-natural food rewards, and/or injury or death to a bear or human. A bear encounter, on the other hand, is defined as a recurring sighting in developed areas or meetings between humans and bears that do not result in damage or injury.

“The majority of conflicts that we have, which are continuing to rise in a gradual trend, are conflicts in the front country, like Teton Village,” said Leon Chartrand, state “Bear Wise” community planner, a Game and Fish initiative that seeks to get communities to take responsibility for minimizing conflict.

“Bears are attempting to reoccupy habitat where they haven’t been in 30 years. Now people live there.”

Conflicts on the front country typically involve livestock, garbage, bird feeders, etc. “A typical conflict is garbage related,” Chartrand explained. “We get a call: ‘A bear has knocked over my garbage can.

I saw him in my backyard.’ We go and answer the call. After investigating, we find out a bear has been in four other garbage cans in the neighborhood and likely destroyed a bird feeder.”

After looking at the bear’s sex, age and history, and considering what the natural food conditions are, Wyoming Game and Fish must decide how to treat the bear conflict.

“There are a lot of factors involved. [All] will determine what we do with the bear. Relocate it, remove – euthanize – it from the population, or just leave it alone,” Chartrand continued.

Tuesday’s workshop is designed to educate the community about bear habitat, storing food and garbage to prevent bear conflicts, identifying black and grizzly bears, using pepper spray properly, and the laws and regulations about bears and other wildlife.

“It’s our responsibility to learn to coexist with bears,” said Gocke. “That’s what these workshops are about.”

He wants to remind people that this is a good time of year to bump into a bear. “We give [community members] background information: What are bears eating this time of year, where you would you be likely to see bear this time of year,” Gocke said.

“Bears will be at low elevations this time of year, because there is snow up high. This is where they will find killed game and where things start to green up first.”

At the workshop, community members will watch a video, much of which was shot by local filmmaker Shane Moore, and learn about bear behavior.

Because a lot of people have a hard time telling the difference between a black bear and a grizzly bear, the workshop will emphasize different types of behaviors.

“Black bears and grizzlies are different and do have different tendencies,” Gocke said.

“[We want to explain that] if you are seeing this kind of behavior, do this, and if you are seeing that kind of behavior, do that.”

Though the workshop will largely focus on bears, it will also touch on mountain lion and wolf encounters and what to do if you interact with them.

“We have healthy populations of lions around here, but we don’t have a lot of encounters,” Gocke said. Most lion encounters are predatory and you want to fight back, whereas bear encounters are mostly defensive in nature and you don’t want to fight back or provoke [them].

“It’s ingrained in us from ‘The Three Little Pigs’ that wolves attack people and they just don’t,” he continued. “By and large, we just don’t have wolf attacks. People should know that. And people are going to start seeing wolves.”

The Wyoming Game and Fish Department hopes it can prevent a lot of conflicts with bears, lions and wolves through education and public outreach by providing some basic information about the animals and their behavior.

“We would encourage everyone, especially new people in the valley, to come to this,” Chartrand said.

“Whether they’re a mountain biker or a hunter or walk or hike, it’s a good, informative type of program. Regardless of whether you love bears, or whether you don’t care if you ever see one, it make sense for everyone to prevent conflicts.”
For more information on the workshop, call 733-2321.

-Photo by Mark Gocke, WGFD. A black bear is relocated and released by Wyoming Game and Fish personnel after it had run into conflict and had to be trapped.

PERMALINK:
Bearspotting | Planet JH News Article: General Environment

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