Alaska Fish & Wildlife News
May 2014

Videos on Bears and Bear Safety

By Riley Woodford
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A blast of bear spray from Bear Spray Demonstration for Hunters, with Craig Boddington

Bears are coming out of hibernation across Alaska, and they’re looking for food. Alaskans live and recreate in bear country, and it’s important to know how to be safe around bears. That includes how to keep bears safe from people, especially keeping bears out of garbage and human-provided food sources. It’s also important to know what to do in the rare instance that a bear behaves in a threatening manner.

A new 60-second video that demonstrates the proper use of bear spray is featured on the Fish and Game “Living with Bears” website. It’s called Bear Spray Demonstration for Hunters, with Craig Boddington, but it really applies to anyone who might encounter a bear. Produced by the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee and the Wildlife Management Institute, it’s a good primer on the use of bear spray.

Living with bears also features video clips from cameras mounted on Anchorage black bears, giving the bears-eye-view of the world. They’re in the section titled “urban bear project.” There are also a few clips from cameras mounted on brown bears in the Nelchina Basin – these are wild bears being wild, documented in June of 2011. Most clips are 15 to 30 seconds

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A cub of the year. Photo by Ray Slatten

Another relatively new video teaches elementary-age students about basic bear safety including tips for avoiding bears, minimizing attractants around homes and camps and what to do if you see a bear. It’s called, HEY BEARS! How YOU Can Stay Safe in Bear Country. This 19-minute video was produced by ADF&G with Wayne Hall-Stoutman Productions and Mirror Lake Middle School, and features middle school kids addressing the target audience – their own peers.

As with all videos embedded on the Fish and Game website, the control bar on the bottom of the embed frame lets you go full-screen.

The species profiles provide more about brown bears or black bears.

The hunting section of the ADF&G website offers insights for hunters for both black and brown bears.


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