Polar Bears Kills Woman And Young Child in Wales (Metlakatla: 2014, school)

[OneDawg]

When I lived in Churchill, MB many years ago, it was fairly common to see ten bears sitting in the garbage dump waiting on the trucks to arrive. One year we had an aggressive bear - previously caught and tagged - who would stick her head into any window she could find looking for a tasty morsel. If you happened to be sitting by that window, she'd get you. Only happened once after that the mounties launched evening patrols going up and down the roads looking for bears. Polars love all kinds of meat, white and dark, belugas, seals, man

[Northrick]

Originally Posted by Cloudy Dayz

I wonder if they couldn't put some type of electronic warning system around these towns in the North, to detect bears if they come close to the village.

That cost money most villages don't have and would likely be a maintenance nightmare in that environment.

[Cloudy Dayz]

Originally Posted by Northrick

That cost money most villages don't have and would likely be a maintenance nightmare in that environment.

I don't know about that, this guy makes his own for almost nothing. But I was thinking of something a little more high tech, like maybe infrared cameras hooked up to a loud siren or airhorn. It can't be that cost prohibitive.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqjnWws29_E

[RayinAK]

Originally Posted by ketchikanite

I’ve had plenty of close encounters with polar bears. Not my first rodeo. During my tenure as a police officer in Barrow Alaska we conducted continuous polar bear patrols. We employed various strategies to get them to move on. Just because you see one doesn’t mean they want to eat you. There may be other food sources in the area that attracted them in the first place. Along Alaska’s north slope bears are often attracted by the whale carcasses that are left on the beach during whaling season. Thanks for sharing your vast knowledge on polar bear behavior.

Very good response.

Bears aren't looking at people because they want to eat them. Any predator that is hungry will look for something to eat regardless of what the food may be. We humans go to restaurants or cook foods ourselves, but the wildlife Polar bears are attracted to seals, and the smell/taste of other sea life, including whale, and seal carcasses. Brown bears in Kodiak also love whale carcasses, and even perfume themselves by rolling on the rotten flesh (given a chance, even dogs will roll over anything that's stinky).

The same happens with brown and black bears that hang around dumpsites. In this case these bears are attracted to human-made foods, discarded (used) oil from restaurants, and so on. So it is not a good idea per people pitching their tents near the animal trails leading to dumpsites. I am certain you already know what I am saying, because of your experiences in Alaska. Not every moose, bear, wolf, and the rest are out there looking to people to trample to death of to eat them

[Parnassia]

Originally Posted by Cloudy Dayz

I don't know about that, this guy makes his own for almost nothing. But I was thinking of something a little more high tech, like maybe infrared cameras hooked up to a loud siren or airhorn. It can't be that cost prohibitive.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqjnWws29_E

You all may find these interesting, though you could easily find other info sources. Granted, the first link is discussing ultrasonic noisemakers, not a blast from a freon horn. Note the comment by well-respected bear behaviorist Stephen Herrero (who actually DOES know what he's talking about). Plus, the second cited from the Journal of Wildlife Management (legitimate peer reviewed wildlife research journal). If whatever attracted the bear in the first place doesn't go away, a determined, focused bear will learn that noise, a non-contact deterrent, means squat and it will keep coming back. They don't survive being wimpy about noise. Note the observation regarding polar bears in particular.

It's one thing to fire off an air horn during an initial chance meetup with a bear while camping but quite another to continuously keep conditioned bears away from permanent attractive nuisances such as villages. One point we always made during our bear safety briefings for Glacier Bay backcountry travelers (developed in participation with Herrero, other bear behavior research, ADFG and other bear country management agencies) was not to camp in any particular spot for more than a couple of nights and to pack up and leave the area if you ended up needing to haze a bear. After their initial scare, they often come back to investigate.

https://www.backpacker.com/stories/a...ses-repel-you/

https://pestpointers.com/are-bears-a...ll-it-depends/

[OneDawg]

How about living with 800 of them? We did and travelled about in Tundra Buggies. Researchers in our group spent an inordinate amount of time establishing safe viewing areas, but it still came down to mounties keeping an eye on them

https://www.nationalparkstraveler.or...chill-manitoba

My best idea was to use a solar panel attaching wires to a metal grate outside the windows. A bit of a shock tends to move them off. But if there's a whiff of meat odor that won't stop them

[Cloudy Dayz]

Originally Posted by Parnassia

You all may find these interesting, though you could easily find other info sources. Granted, the first link is discussing ultrasonic noisemakers, not a blast from a freon horn. Note the comment by well-respected bear behaviorist Stephen Herrero (who actually DOES know what he's talking about). Plus, the second cited from the Journal of Wildlife Management (legitimate peer reviewed wildlife research journal). If whatever attracted the bear in the first place doesn't go away, a determined, focused bear will learn that noise, a non-contact deterrent, means squat and it will keep coming back. They don't survive being wimpy about noise. Note the observation regarding polar bears in particular.

It's one thing to fire off an air horn during an initial chance meetup with a bear while camping but quite another to continuously keep conditioned bears away from permanent attractive nuisances such as villages. One point we always made during our bear safety briefings for Glacier Bay backcountry travelers (developed in participation with Herrero, other bear behavior research, ADFG and other bear country management agencies) was not to camp in any particular spot for more than a couple of nights and to pack up and leave the area if you ended up needing to haze a bear. After their initial scare, they often come back to investigate.

https://www.backpacker.com/stories/a...ses-repel-you/

https://pestpointers.com/are-bears-a...ll-it-depends/

Yeah, I wouldn't expect an air horn to deter a polar bear. If it does great, but I wouldn't have high expectations. My thought was on a civil defence siren to alert residents to a bear entering the town, so people could take the appropriate precautions. I would envision an automated system of FLIR cameras and a civil defence siren up on a utility pole. Possibly military surplus equipment, which could be pretty cheap.

[Parnassia]

Originally Posted by Cloudy Dayz

Yeah, I wouldn't expect an air horn to deter a polar bear. If it does great, but I wouldn't have high expectations. My thought was on a civil defence siren to alert residents to a bear entering the town, so people could take the appropriate precautions. I would envision an automated system of FLIR cameras and a civil defence siren up on a utility pole. Possibly military surplus equipment, which could be pretty cheap.

IMHO public warning systems already exist...word of mouth, radio dispatch, phone trees on top of citizen patrols focused on locations bears are typically able to access. And such systems are a lot less obnoxious, particularly at some times of year when multiple bears are transiting through or in the middle of the night! Seem to recall Churchill in particular has such a coordinated network down pat.

[Cloudy Dayz]

Originally Posted by Parnassia

IMHO public warning systems already exist...word of mouth, radio dispatch, phone trees on top of citizen patrols focused on locations bears are typically able to access. And such systems are a lot less obnoxious, particularly at some times of year when bears are transiting through or in the middle of the night! Seem to recall Churchill in particular has such a coordinated network down pat.

Well that system failed. Word of mouth might take a little too much time while a polar bear is wandering around the town.

[Parnassia]

Originally Posted by Cloudy Dayz

Well that system failed. Word of mouth might take a little too much time while a polar bear is wandering around the town.

Wales is Wales, not Churchill. A polar bear wandering around Wales might not be such a common event to encourage establishing a coordinated warning system. It would be interesting to see necropsy information on the bear. It might have been old, injured, sick or starving and more inclined to attack someone. Polar bears are under increasing metabolic stress due to retreat of sea ice.