Progress, Faith, Jason, Ted, Bears and People - UPDATE January 15, 2016
Faith - 04/20/11
Faith - 04/20/11
At the Bear Center, progress is being made on the upgrade. On the ?Camping with Black Bears? exhibit, the wood around the post has been removed as a step toward making the post into a white pine with a branch that has a backpack hanging from it.
Outside, another crew is about to complete the beautiful entryway we can watch being built. A bronze plaque will say, ?The Entryway to the North American Bear Center was made possible by LILY FANS (big letters) and Bill and Shirley Rice (small letters).?
The Hope Learning Center has temporarily become a construction area for the new exhibit platforms we will see in place of the old carpeted panels in the Bear Center.
Jason - 04/08/2011
Jason - 04/08/2011
Two candidates for the upper wall are these pictures of Faith and Jason from April 2011. A third is of contented Ted in his Chalet. Pictures of the four ambassador bears will go over the viewing windows and possibly on the wall of the outdoor viewing balcony.
The survey about coexistence with black bears I participated in yesterday was well thought out. To me, it was interesting how the local community we are studying differs from the norm. The questionnaire asked about usual measures to reduce bear problems?bear resistant waste containers, relocation away from human development, hazing with dogs or rubber bullets, long-term aversive conditioning, bylaws aimed at reducing attractants, restricting human access where bears are present, removal of fruit trees, and killing bears that conflict with people. This seldom or never resorts to these actions. It has one tactic, diversionary feeding.
Ted in Chalet den - 11/02/12
Ted in Chalet den - 11/02/12
The survey asked what educational tools are used. Of the nine things listed, this community does none of them. It does one thing?something Lily Fans know from personal experience. The community learned from the bears themselves over the years. The dozen households that feed bears invite their neighbors over. The neighbors tell others. People become willing to coexist with these animals that they have come to realize are not the animals portrayed on sensationalistic TV programs or in the warnings of some state wildlife agencies. It takes two things to create a bear complaint?what a bear does and how the person feels about it. In this community, seeing a bear going about its business is not cause for a call to the DNR. Real problems are few and far between. Why? Again, it?s the diversionary feeding. Why does food lead bears into trouble in some communities and lead bears out of trouble in this community? It?s the amount of food. In years when food is scarce in the woods bears go where the food is. In this community they go to the community feeding stations where there is significant food and the bears are welcome. In other communities, they have to go house to house for tidbits, like a little bird seed here and a little garbage there, and become nuisances.
What about nuisance complaints from this community. In the first 10 years of our study, there were only 2 complaints (a bear at a bird feeder and a young bear looking in a window). Then the DNR began building a case against our research. Complaints rose drastically as the DNR solicited complaints and falsified complaints as was testified in court. Now that the court hearings are over, the effort to file complaints is over. Complaints were back to zero the last two years.
It?s not rocket science. When bears are hungry due to a lack of food in the forest, they look for food where they can find it. It?s not about bears being habituated or food-conditioned. It?s about hunger. The bears in this community are habituated and food-conditioned, but they seldom go house to house, and they generate few genuine complaints.
Two nice messages came in today about education. One was about a Lily Fan who has a store with bear information filling a corner. The other was about Lily Fans educating in schools in North Carolina.
Thank you for all you do.
Lynn Rogers, Biologist, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center
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