Study says, “groups of four”.

Banff National Park is the first Canadian nat’l park to implement mandatory grouping of hikers on the trails with high bear interaction risk. They have data that says it’s better for the bears and people to have fewer, tight groups than a continuous stream of individuals or smaller groups.  It sounded like kind of a hassle for us but worked out great.  We paired up with some folks from Vancouver and hiked out to Consolation Lakes from Morraine Lake. We never saw a bear, of course!
We did see deer, an American dipper, and a sandpiper (and I thought they
were just shore birds…wrong).

Animal overpasses and underpasses

The Trans-Canadian highway is becoming a four lane highway and has 8ft fence all along.  They have included lots of landscaped bridges and huge culverts to allow animals to get to the other side.  It’s amazing to see and they have some really cool motion triggered photography of animals actually using them.  This is a huge research
field….they need to track individuals to be sure there is enough movement to avoid in-breeding and to assure access to food.
Molly, looking for a big-animal vet/animal career?

Bears hit by trains….why on the tracks?

Dah………lots of grain spillage from grain hauler cars.  It lures them onto the tracks.  They are still working on what to do about that.  The parks and Provincial Gov’t and
Canadian Pacific Railroad have a big symposium in September to address bear deaths on the tracks.  Pretty unique topic I’d say.

We also learned why Moose have so much trouble with trains and automobiles.  In nature they are an apex animal so their instinct when confronted is to stand their ground or charge into the fray.  When they charge a train or auto they loose.  Oops!