Northern Bear Awareness Society

Northern Bear Awareness

To reduce conflict in neighbourhoods between people and bears through education, innovation and cooperation.

Urban Bear Smart Research Project

The Northern Bear Awareness Society is asking you to

ADOPT-A-BEAR

for the

Prince George Urban Bear Smart Research Project

As part of a continuing effort to reduce the number of problem bears destroyed each year, Northern Bear Awareness has begun a research project to monitor the movement and travel corridors of black bears within the city of Prince George. Thus far, we have collared two bears, and aim to eventually track a total of twenty. Ideally the study will continue for several consecutive years.

In order to involve the public and to ensure the success of this exciting project, we have developed the Adopt-A-Bear Sponsorship Program.

The following table outlines the benefits we can provide for various donation levels. Please note that benefits are cumulative (i.e. donations over $2500 get all benefits).

$25 +

Email (or regular mail) updates about all the collared bears, for one year

$100 +

AND a 5 x 7 photograph of “your” bear with statistics

$250 +

AND a hair sample (AND an upgrade to an 8 x 10 photograph)

$500 +

AND a plaster cast model of “your” bear’s front paw

$1000 +

AND a plaster cast model of “your” bear’s hind paw AND you get to name “your” bear

$2500 +

AND the opportunity to help track “your” collared bear*

BONUS:

The top 2009 donor over $1000 will receive a limited edition print of

Sandra Nahornoff’s “Rocky Mountain Grizzlies,”

which won BC Wildlife Artist of the Year 2006.

To make a donation or for more information, contact

Northern Bear Awareness at 250-301-7575.

Please Note the following:

All donations of $2 or more will get you a one-year membership to the Northern Bear Awareness Society.

All donors will be recognized on our website unless otherwise instructed.

For donations less than $1000, more than one sponsor may share a bear.

In the event of the death a research bear, affected sponsors will be assigned another bear.

For full details, contact the Northern Bear Awareness Society.

1384 River Road

Prince George, BC

V2L 5S8.

Phone: 250-301-7575

Fax: 250-563-5438

Dan Tomlinson of Department of Fisheries and Oceans – We did not collar this 2 year old female because she was too small for a GPS collar.

Northern Bear Awareness Board of Director Shona Smith with small 2 year old black bear that was released without collaring.

NBA Biologist Lana Ciarniello and Ministry of Environment biologist Glen Watts fit Cindy (BF1) with a Global Positioning Collar. Cindy is ~20 yrs old and had 3 cubs during the winter of 2009/10.

Cindy’s front paw.

Irene was captured up a tree on Irene Road in 2009. She is approximately 6-7 yrs of age and also had 3 cubs during the winter of 2009/10. This picture shows Irene’s back foot.

Gary Van Spengen and Bill Van Egteren of the Conservation Officer Service also help us with our Urban Bear Study. In this picture they have built a cubby set to catch urban bears.

The Prince George Urban Bear Smart Research Project: Helping Reduce the Number of Problem Bears Destroyed Each Year

Presented at the Bear-People Conflicts Workshop, 3rd International in Canmore, Alberta in November 2009 by project biologist:

Lana M. Ciarniello, Ph.D. RPBio

Aklak Wildlife Consulting

Email: Aklak@telus.net

©LM Ciarniello

Each year Prince George has one of the highest numbers of bears destroyed in the province (10-year average = 47 bears/year, Ciarniello 2008). Black and grizzly bears (Ursus americanus, U. arctos) inhabit areas surrounding Prince George, although black bears are more frequently encountered. In 1998, the Omineca Bear Human Conflict Committee (OBHCC) was formed by a group of concerned residents to address bear-human conflicts and bear destroyed within the city limits. In 2000, the OBHCC developed the Northern Bear Awareness Society (NBA) with the goal of promoting public awareness on issues such as bear behaviour and learning. The goal of the NBA, as overseen by the OBHCC, was to focus on reducing “problem” bear behaviour, human-bear conflicts, and the number of bears destroyed within the city of Prince George. Despite considerable efforts, such as working with the City to install bear resistant garbage containers in parks, running a yearly fruit exchange program, and continuous extensive public outreach programs, between 2004 and 2009, the number of bear complaints more than doubled and >160 bears were destroyed, a rate similar to the 10-year average.

In 2006, NBA refocused its efforts towards achieving Provincial Bear Smart Status (Davis et al. 2002) and has completed a hazard assessment (Ciarniello 2008) and management plan (Ciarniello 2009). The hazard assessment identified that the planning and layout of the city appears to act to attract bears into residential neighbourhoods. As an addition to NBA’s education and outreach efforts in 2009 we started the Prince George Urban Bear Smart Research Project. The Project proposes to identify and conserve wildlife habitats for black and grizzly bears that live within or surrounding urban landscapes (i.e., resident bears) as well as aiding transient bears that are travelling through these areas. As urban areas further expand into formally contiguous habitats the results for wildlife are normally habitat degradation, loss and fragmentation thereby compromising conservation, particularly for large carnivores.

Specifically, the objectives of the Urban Bear Research Project are to quantify the following factors and their influences on bear behaviour by:

(1) Identifying movement and travel corridors within and around urban areas with focus on ‘critical’ linkages;

(2) Identifying critical habitat patches/types for bears;

(3) Quantifying the response of bear movement in relationship to new developments in bear habitat; and

(4) Examining reproductive parameters and age specific mortality in relationship to identified critical habitats.

The purpose is to use monitoring to develop or refine scientifically based methods and analyses that may be used to manage urban wildlife. This project will determine how we can use landscape level planning to enhance movement between habitat patches in areas where bears are acceptable and further to restrict or largely reduce access for bears in areas where bears are not acceptable, such as within residential neighbourhoods thereby promoting an increased environmental understanding among developers, City planners, the Conservation Officer Service and the public.

We take every precaution when trapping bears in and

around the City. If you see this type of culvert trap and

bear warning sign, please exit the area the way you came.

Do not approach the trap or remain in the area.

For more photos of the Urban Bear Research Project click here.

©LM Ciarniello

We want to thank the project sponsors: