The first round of data collection for a Smithers pilot study that aims to turn into a long-term project looking at community strategies for human-bear coexistence has wrapped up.
Dr. Lauren Harding of UNBC and Dr. Sarah Fessenden of Kwantlen Polytechnic University are both social scientists studying how people perceive bears, how they react to bears, and how people see conflict with bears, as well as, attitudes toward bear conservation.
Their hope is to shed some light on some differences between communities that are having issues with human-bear conflict, and how policy and wildlife management can be adapted for different social contexts.
Mackenzie Kurta, A Kwantlen Polytechnic University anthropology student was searching for opportunities to gain hands-on research experience while completing her Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology degree when Dr. Fessenden invited her to participate in the project and sent her to Smithers.
She spent a couple of weeks this summer at the Northern Lights Wildlife Shelter.
"So my part of the project was to immerse myself in the organizations," she said. "A part of the project is going to be understanding how communities recognize bear conservation or wildlife conservation, and my part was to observe how the communities were supporting the organizations and vice versa."
She said most of it was volunteer work.
"So when I was up in Smithers, I was working from eight to four every day, cutting up a bunch of food for bears and getting to know some of the organization ins and outs, how they're supported, both financially and publicly. And then we also worked with Northern Bear Awareness in Prince George and I was able to see the differences between those two organizations for bear conservation, one very educational, very public forward, and the other more hands-on with the wildlife."
She noted that a lot of the support for the wildlife shelter in Smithers came from overseas and most of the local community was neither for nor against their efforts.
Dr. Harding previously told Black Press the premise of the project is to see what works for managing wildlife. She noted that reducing human-bear conflict in one community doesn’t necessarily work in another because there are different ecosystems at work, there are different community demographics at work and there are different political and cultural factors.
“Social context matters, a program to manage wildlife that’s been developed in a resort town like Whistler, doesn’t necessarily mean it is going to work in a logging town, like Mackenzie,” she said.
Researchers will begin data analysis in January and the hope is to have a report on the study results prepared for the Northern Bear Awareness Society Annual General Meeting in March 2025.
