These dogs scare bears away--to protect them

When dozens of polar bears descended upon the northern Russian archipelago of Novaya Zemlya, no one was sure what to do. The bears entered homes and public buildings, and people were afraid to go outside. But polar bears are an endangered species in Russia, and the federal government has refused to issue licenses to shoot them.

This “invasion,” as it’s been called, has sparked conversations about how prepared wildlife managers in North America are for an influx of polar bears as they lose critical habitat from melting sea ice and take to land in search of food. Similarly, black bears’ ranges are expanding and oil and gas development is increasingly close to or in bear territory. (Learn more: Two rare bear attacks show a rise in conflicts with people.)

Typically if a bear shows up at a dump or digging through someone’s garbage, “you’d either show up, corner the animal, and euthanize it,” says Alan Myers from the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, "or you would dart the animal, put it in a cage, and take it many miles away. Those were the only two options and neither one of those was effective at all.”

One bear biologist, Carrie Hunt, has made it her life’s mission to find effective, non-lethal methods to prevent human-bear conflict. After watching how wildlife rangers’ dogs could scare bears away, she was inspired. In 1996, Hunt founded the Wind River Bear Institute, headquartered in Florence, Montana, to train a special breed of dogs to be “bear shepherds”—to bark and scare away bears when they get too close to human settlements and to condition them to steer clear.

Since then, law enforcement and wildlife agencies in the United States and Canada increasingly have begun turning to dogs as an alternative to keep bears away. Bear dogs now work with wildlife and land managers in the states of Washington and Nevada, as well as Alberta, Canada, and even in Japan. Several national parks, including Banff, Yosemite, and Glacier, have contracted bear dogs too.

“Bears are naturally afraid of canids,” Hunt says. “Why? Because packs of coyotes can steal cubs.”

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/2019/02/karelian-bear-dogs-keep-bears-away/?cmpid=org=ngp::mc=crm-email::src=ngp::cmp=Editorial::add=Animals_20190228::rid=594148660