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What
is Bear Shepherding?
Bear Shepherding
is a bear management technique developed by the Wind River Bear
Institute (WRBI) to reduce conflicts between humans and bears and
subsequently reduce human caused bear fatalities. Traditional bear
management techniques are limited to the relocation or destruction
of problem bears. Generally these methods treat symptoms and do
not eliminate the root causes that create the problem bear's behavior.
Today, WRBI is developing and implementing the only existing solution
to this dilemma. Known as the Partners-In-Life program.
This solution relies on four "Partners" to work together
to achieve the desired results: the bears, the public, bear managing
agencies, and WRBI's experienced bear conflict teams.
The program
implements bear shepherding by focusing on two critical components:
preventative and knowledgeable responses by the public, and proper
teaching and responses of the bears. Using this technique, the behaviors
of people and bears are managed by teaching land users to prevent
or reduce conflicts with bears and by teaching bears to avoid situations
leading to conflict with humans. Based on more than 20 years of
research and field work by WRBI Director and bear conflict specialist
Carrie Hunt, this breakthrough solution to human-bear conflicts
helps both human and bears to make the behavior changes necessary
for long-term, safe coexistence.
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How
do you teach the bears?
The Wind River Bear Institute uses specially trained
Karelian Bear Dogs (KBDs) in combination with other aversive conditioning
tools and structured learning situations to teach bears how to recognize
and avoid humans and their personal space or "boundaries".
The lessons reverse the conditioning bears acquire when they successfully
locate food by venturing within human boundaries. Bears are taught
"on-site" where the conflict occurred whenever possible.
Based on research on how bears learn in the wild, Carrie Hunt developed
the technique of working with the instinctual boundary awareness
bears have evolved over centuries of living within bear-to-bear
relationships and hierarchies. Bear shepherding is an innovative
combination of animal-to-animal communication through the KBD's
presence and human-to-bear communication, using a deep understanding
of the species' behavior to structure lessons that the bear will
absorb and retain.
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How
do you teach people to prevent or reduce conflicts?
Prevention work is accomplished
through working "on-site" with private landowners as well
as through extensive local and national media outreach. Landowners
are taught and helped to secure attractants and to report bear activity
early, before problem behavior escalates. The use of highly trained
KBDs enhances the public education work. The dogs act as ambassadors
for the Program, as does the fact that bear shepherding, unlike
traditional methods of bear management, involves working with the
bear when and where problem bear behaviors occur. This means that
a cabin owner, rural resident, or camper is fully aware of the work
being done with the bear. The public is engaged, through public
education and one-on-one demonstrations, in cleaning up bear attractants
and in becoming an active and ongoing "Partner" in the
resolution of bear conflicts.
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What
do you teach the bears (lesson plans and lessons)?
Lesson Planning:
- Always make
sure the bear can do what you are asking. Be sure you are giving
the bear a clear, consistent message and options for leaving.
Make the right thing easy and the wrong thing difficult when setting
up your lesson! Make sure that what you make a bear do is what
you want it to learn!
- Remember
you are working with a bear's attitude. That is what is getting
it into trouble. Do not attempt to teach a bear to stop at specific
distances from people, roads, or houses. Instead, teach a bear
to choose to move as a wild bear would (i.e. By making use of
cover and by moving away from people when confronted).
- Take time
to stop and make a safe, meaningful lesson plan.
- Take time
to talk to the public about what you are trying to accomplish
and how they can help.
- Know your
projectile loads and make them count! Don't "pepper"
(same as nagging) the bear with "hits" that are too
far away (i.e. Bean bag rounds at 25 meters are ineffectual. They
are made for 5 meters. Use a rubber bullet instead.) You lose
credibility with the bear when rounds are used inappropriately.
The bear needs to learn that it never wants to get hit again and
that it is not worth it to go back and do it again. Only take
safe shots to the rump of the bear. Place your cracker shell rounds
on the ground behind the bear.
- Know your
dogs and make sure to pick the right ones for the job at hand.
Three to four dog and handler units is the preferred number to
make up a "team" for forcing a bear to move away. Two
units is the minimum number recommended. Within each team make
sure you have at least one dog that barks well and two dogs that
can be turned loose on a bear if necessary. Take into account
the species of bear you are working with when choosing which dogs
to use.
Lessons to be
learned by Roadside Bears:
- To move
away from approaching vehicles, stopped vehicles and people on
roads.
- To use cover
by moving into total cover so that it cannot be seen when confronted
by vehicles or people on the roads.
- To learn
it can use the roadside when there are no vehicles, no people
present or at night.
Lessons to be
learned by Site Specific Bears:
- To choose
not to enter these sites and view them as it would a dominant
bear's personal space or"boundary"
- To learn
that these sites are not worth investigation.
- To stay in
cover out of view from the perimeter of a site
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