Program Overview

Carrie Hunt has developed a noninvasive method she calls bear shepherding to reduce human-bear conflict. The Partners-In-Life program implements bear shepherding through the partnering of 4 components—the bears, the public, bear management agencies, and WRBI's experienced bear conflict biologist and Karelian bear dog teams. Problem bears are taught to behave properly and the public is educated to behave in a manner that prevents bear problems and their reoccurrence. The program works on site with private landowners to educate and correct situations that have led to conflicts with bears. Agency personnel are trained to employ effective teaching techniques for both bears and people and the WRBI teams work to develop the bear shepherding methodology and educate their partners.

The program shepherds bears in a unique approach that utilizes highly trained KBDs in combination with other tools such as red pepper spray, rubber bullets and on-site releases (developed by the program) to modify bear behavior so that problem bears do not need to be relocated or destroyed. This is the only KBD team in the world that is trained to teach bears to change their undesirable behaviors. These tools are presented to bears in a POSITIVE learning environment where the bears learn to prefer the correct behaviors and remain flexible and unharassed! Few programs have attempted to teach bears and this is the only one that employs a positive learning approach that builds on the way that the bears operate and learn in the wild. In addition, WRBI breeds, selects, and trains KBDs to serve as partners for agency personnel that manage bears and for people that live, work, or play in bear country. The dogs find bear sign or bears; trail problem bears at conflict sites; warn bears to stay away; turn approaching bears; and guard ranches, camps, homes, and campgrounds. The program is currently developing bear shepherding, KBD training and certification courses for both agency personnel and the public.

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Teaching Bears- WRBI Bear Shepherding Work

When releasing a bear on-site, the Partners- In-Life team will yell at the bear while using the rubber bullets and bean bag rounds to "spank" the bear as it leaves an area it should not have been in. The Karelian Bear Dogs (KBDs) are also barking at the bear as the release occurs. The rubber bullets and bean bag rounds are figuratively an extension of the team's arms "spanking" the bear as it runs away. After the bear has safely left the release site and gone into cover, the team gets the KBDs on leash and "chases" the bear to the edge of cover, further defining the boundary. When the bear is in cover where a bear should be, the team does not go in after it. The bear hears yelling and barking at the edge of the cover but learns it is secure if it uses cover and cannot be seen. The combination of human voices, dogs barking and the non-lethal rounds applied to the bear's use of cover teaches a bear to associate human voices, dogs and developed sites in view of humans with getting "spanked." This allows a bear to learn to recognize and avoid human boundaries.

Bears that are trapped after developing problem behaviors are radio-collared before they are released. This allows the Partners-In-Life team to track the bear's movements after a release. A bear rarely returns to the release site, but that doesn't mean it won't go to a nearby neighbor's house to check out their birdfeeders and garbage! The radio collar allows the team to be two steps ahead of the bear in order to consistently teach the lesson. If a bear shows signs of coming close to a house the team will try to get to the house and wait for the bear to come out of cover and into the developed site. If the bear does come within a predetermined site, the team then shepherds the bear with yelling, barking dogs and firing the rubber bullets, bean bag rounds and cracker shells until the bear responds correctly. In safe situations the team will get the dogs out and "chase" the bear to the edge of cover and the bear again gets the message that it's not just the release site but any developed site that is not allowed.

The KBDs are used on many levels in Bear Shepherding. At release sites the team is able to use the KBDs' loud barks to further communicate their position and intentions to the bear. When "shepherding" a bear on foot with the dogs on leash, they also provide a wall of sound along with a physical barrier between the team and the bear to facilitate pushing the bear in the right direction. The dogs exhibit a body and voice language that tells the bear that they are serious, that if they weren't on a leash they'd be right in the bear's face. When the team is working in a campground or trying to find an unknown bear, the dogs are able to track efficiently and effectively find the bear for the team. The dogs can be used to alert the team to a bear's presence and allow them to work a bear without a radio collar. These bears get the same treatment as a collared bear would.

We have found that with consistent conditioning, a bear can be taught that what it is doing is inappropriate. It will learn that it is secure if it is in cover, away from humans. When a bear looks for food it uses up energy, the easier a meal, the less energy the bear has to use to get it. If a bear goes looking for easy meals at a non-bear-proof residence and gets "shepherded" from that site, that bear uses more energy then it gets in return, since it was not able to eat. The bear soon learns that it is a waste of precious energy to go within human boundaries and that it is a better use of its efforts to remain in cover eating natural bear foods.

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Teaching People-WRBI Conflict Prevention Work

Aversive conditioning of the bears is not the only job the Partners-In-Life team has when trying to teach a bear. Humans require just as much teaching as bears do. Many people move out to areas that include bear habitat for the aesthetic pleasure and the excitement of having wildlife close by. However, a lot of these people may not know how to live with the wildlife and do not change their lifestyles to coexist with wildlife by preventing the potential for conflict. Often they will put up birdfeeders, leave their garbage unsecured or put garbage out the night before it is picked up. Others will leave dog or cat foods out on the porch for outdoor pets or will keep livestock feed where it is accessible for bears. Some people want to have compost piles or gardens that attract bears as well.

Education of private landowners and community-based involvement in preventing bear conflicts is the key to our Programs' success. Many homeowners do not understand what can bring a bear close to their house. The team helps homeowners adjust their lifestyle to work for both the residents and the bears. Ideally the residents will continue using the bear-proof adjustments for the long term rather than as a temporary quick fix. The Partners-In-Life team depends highly on the cooperation of landowners and residents to ensure the effectiveness of the bear shepherding. It takes the whole community to clean up and keep on each other about being bear-proof to seal the bear's lesson. No matter how much shepherding the team does, if people don't change their ways and don't clean up bear attractants, bears will continue getting into trouble.

When a bear has been at a residence, the team will investigate the site and determine what brought the bear there. Bears usually do not approach close to houses unless there is something there they want. If the residence is not bear-proof, the Partners-In-Life team will work with the landowner to secure the site. The team has a lot of "tried and true" methods to help make a property bear-proof. WRBI calls this work "prevention" because the team is working with the individual homeowners to help prevent future problems with bears and other wildlife.

This "prevention" work is not only done after a bear has been at a residence. Ideally the team tries to prevent problems before they happen. When a bear is near a town or neighborhood the Partners-In-Life team will go door-to-door and talk with residents to make sure that any attractants on their properties are secure. This will keep a bear from wanting to come close to residences and further condition itself to entering within human boundaries. Prevention is one of our strongest tools. Taking a proactive approach towards bear conflict helps keep bears from even starting to become habituated. With this in mind, any time the team is not working on teaching a bear it is focused on community prevention work. On a given day, the team will look at a map and target a specific neighborhood that has the potential of being a problem area based on areas where problem bears have been documented, and will spend the day doing prevention in that area. Along with securing the community, this allows residents to become familiar with the Wind River Bear Institute and its techniques. WRBI's presence helps residents call in potential problems faster with the knowledge that the bears will be handled in a way that will not lead to them being trapped and destroyed.