TRU Environmental Sciences Seminar
February 3, 2011, 2011 3:30-4:30
Dr. Seth M.Wilson
Department of Biology, University of Victoria
"The grassroots of carnivore conservation"
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| Image from: http://sonic.net/~evolve/wp/human_ecology/grizzly_bear_1a.jpg |
Dr Seth Wilson has dedicated six years of his career aiming to find a healthy balance of coexistence between humans and grizzly bears (Ursus arctos) by developing a trusting relationship with a community of private landowners in the Blackfoot Watershed of Montana, US. Agricultural and ranching economic loss due to large carnivores is a world-wide issue and statistics provide evidence for this: 45% of reported ‘conflicts’ in Montana are due to detrimental interactions with livestock. Wilson formed a wildlife committee with a previously developed non-government organization, ‘The Blackfoot Challenge’ to discover a solution to the grizzly bear ‘problem’. By asking the landowners to share some of their concerns, Wilson was able conclude the best management practice for grizzly bear conservation was to promote a slight change human behaviour.
A risk assessment was mapped to locate potential bear attractants and their location, and then relate this information to reported bear sightings and conflicts. Not surprisingly, there was overlap. A simple act such as placing an electric fence around beehive production reduces the risk of conflict from ~50% (without the fence) to less than 25% (with the fence). Portable electric fences have shown successful outcomes for many ranchers. Proper waste management practices are important. By forming a neighbour network to share bear whereabouts so dog food and bird feeders can be brought inside is also effective. Wilson explained that bears, having extremely good olfactory senses, are attracted to rotting carcasses of dead calves or sick animals, and grizzly bear sows have been observed teaching cubs to locate these livestock graveyards. Many ranchers have signed onto a carcass pick-up program to get animal wastes off their land to reduce the attractant.
Wilson says the project appears to be a success and preliminary results are optimistic. There has been a 93% decline in conflicts between 2003 and 2009. In the research area, there have been zero grizzly bear mortalities, livestock losses, beehive invasions, or relocations since 2005. Perhaps the bears are showing learned behaviour and avoiding the intensively managed areas only to investigate areas outside the Blackfoot Watershed research area.
The knowledge that Seth and his team have obtained is transferable to other areas. He says when ranchers hear successful results from other ranchers (rather than researchers or scientific data) they are more eager to adopt the practice.
It appears that peer-to-peer education and stewardship is fundamental to successful conservation of grizzly bears, and perhaps other large carnivores. Instead of telling people what they can or cannot do, or doing it for them, give them the basic information and let them spread the news.
My opinion: How great is it to hear a success story of large carnivore conservation that does not result in destroying individuals! This lecture was centered around the importance of public education and the effects of altering human behaviour rather than non-human animals. In this anthropocentric world we live, it seems too often that humans are trying to physically remove wildlife from our 'bubbles'. Wilson’s research of the grizzly bear encounters in Montana makes me feel encouraged to state it might be beneficial to alter human behaviour so that rather than enticing large carnivores to invade our 'territories' and then kicking them out, we deter these animals from even wandering around in the first place. Let's be proactive rather than reactive!
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Firstly, I wanna say thanks for posting about this seminar because I missed it the first time around!
ReplyDeleteSecondly, I agree with you it is encouraging that we are starting to realize that it is better to be proactive than reactive and try to prevent 'conflicts' with wildlife.
I think that his approach to this whole situation is very smart, ranchers don't want to hear scientists tell them facts and lecture them on what to do to keep the bears away, they just want to get rid of the bears! Teaching one community and showing them that with a little effort a large difference can be made (25% decline just from electric fences around beehives!) and then having that community spread their success story on to other communities is a great method.
Also it allows him to walk away and watch his work grow into hopefully a large area where bears can be human distraction free.
This is the way that conservation efforts need to go now. Education is key in seeing any real change and if the personal changes that people have to make are done in baby steps, things like not leaving dog food out, people will definately start to buy in more.
I also want to thank you for posting this because I missed it as well.
ReplyDeleteEventhough this article was about research in Montana, I think that the basic idea of it can be applied to our bear "problem" here in Canada. Over the past several years, there have been more and more human-bear interactions in B.C. People complain about how having bears around is dangerous to themselves and their children and pets, and always seem to think that the bears are the problem.
A little bit of learning can go a long way. Kamloops is a good example of a city with a lot of bear interactions. We keep building higher up and expanding the city limits further into what used to be wilderness, and people wonder where the bears come from?
Kamloops has already taken steps to reduce bear interactions (ex. bylaw regarding times garbage can be put out), but there will always be interactions between bears and humans. I think with continued education, humans can learn why bears wander into "our" areas, and what we can do to reduce bear-human interactions.
You are very welcome ladies. It was a great talk!
ReplyDeleteKamloops has definitely taken a step in the right direction - especially with education. Having a summer position dedicated 100% to 'Bear Aware' is a fantastic method of getting the message out to residents. I hope it’s the case that if one person can personally witness a positive outcome following a particular action (in this case avoiding bear-human encounters) he/she will be more likely to share that strategy with a ‘neighbour’.
Perhaps a good portion of education should focus on changing the mentality of people by simply replacing ‘conflict’ with ‘encounter’ or ‘situation’ as the latter seems much less harmful or negative. With most wildlife, it is not a case of the animal wanting to directly attack the human, but rather something the human possesses (honey, livestock, garbage etc.). At least in the case of bears!