{"id":13915,"date":"2016-04-21T05:37:31","date_gmt":"2016-04-21T09:37:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/huntsville.dopperonline.ca\/?p=13915"},"modified":"2016-04-21T15:55:24","modified_gmt":"2016-04-21T19:55:24","slug":"bear-day-at-cavalcade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/bear-day-at-cavalcade\/","title":{"rendered":"Bears want to eat the plants, not you: bear myths dispelled at upcoming Bear Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bears are misunderstood, perceived as dangerous, and often feared. Mike McIntosh wants to fix that.<\/p>\n

As the founder of Bear With Us Sanctuary and Rehabilitation Centre for Bears, McIntosh knows a few things about bears and is working to dispel some of the myths surrounding these gentle giants. He’ll be in Huntsville at the end of April to share information about bear behaviour.<\/p>\n

<\/broadstreet-zone><\/strong><\/div>\n

For starters, when bears emerge from their dens in the spring they are generally still fairly fat, says McIntosh, and that means they aren\u2019t all that hungry. They are primarily vegetarian and their first spring foods are green grasses and tree buds, provided they don\u2019t find a human-created food source like bird feeders or garbage.<\/p>\n

“Bears are out and roaming right now,\u201d says McIntosh. \u201cWhen the snow goes, it\u2019s a good reminder for people to put their bird feeders away. We want to make sure the bears are eating what they are supposed to eat which is grass and leaves.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s not much reason to be concerned if you encounter a bear, says McIntosh. \u201cIt’s usually just curious. You want to let it know you are a human being \u2013 talk to it and wave your arms so the bear knows what you are. Make some noise, clap or yell, and the bear will almost always disappear in a big hurry.\u201d But don\u2019t run, cautions McIntosh. \u201cA bear can run at least twice as fast as a human being.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reducing bear-human conflicts through education is one of McIntosh\u2019s goals. Attractants like bird feeders, garbage and other food sources are a big cause of conflict and an easy one to resolve. If there\u2019s no food, a bear isn\u2019t likely to hang around.<\/p>\n

McIntosh also wants people to better understand bear behavior \u2013 what looks aggressive may just be a bear\u2019s way of telling you it\u2019s nervous.<\/p>\n

\"Photo:

Photo: Mike McIntosh, Bear With Us<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cThere is so much misinformation out there,\u201d he says. \u201cBears aren\u2019t really an animal to be feared. We can quite easily coexist with them with a few simple rules. They are very rarely dangerous, but that\u2019s not the perception. Like Chief Dan George said, what people fear, they want to destroy. We are trying to lessen the fear.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bear With Us rehabilitates orphaned bear cubs and tries to release them back to the wild \u201cbecause we are trying to right some of the many wrongs that bears encounter with human activity. We get very few bears here who haven\u2019t been compromised greatly by what people do. When people kill a mother bear, it has nothing to do with nature \u2013 that\u2019s outside of nature. We are trying to help counter that but more importantly educate so that it happens less.\u201d<\/p>\n

The sanctuary currently has 48 bears that will be returned to the wild in July and August.<\/p>\n

\"This

This bear was released by Bear With Us in 2013. Photo: Mike McIntosh<\/p><\/div>\n

On April 30, McIntosh will be at Cavalcade Color Lab in Huntsville (34 King William Street) to talk about bear behavior and ways to reduce bear-human conflict. \u201cI\u2019ll talk about what kind of sounds bears make and the difference between a nervous bear and a not-nervous bear, and I\u2019ll be showing some videos of bears doing bluff charges.\u201d He\u2019ll also share information about what Bear With Us does, and give people the opportunity to adopt a cub to support the work that they do.<\/p>\n

Stop by between 10am and 4pm to learn more about bears and ask any questions you have about how to peacefully coexist with them.<\/p>\n

For more information on Bear With Us and to learn more about bear behaviour, visit bearwithus.org<\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n

Don’t miss out on Doppler! Sign up for our free, twice-weekly newsletter here<\/a><\/span>. <\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/broadstreet-zone>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bears are misunderstood, perceived as dangerous, and often feared. Mike McIntosh wants to fix that. As the founder of Bear With Us Sanctuary and Rehabilitation Centre for Bears, McIntosh knows […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1903,"featured_media":13916,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-13915","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-breaking"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nBears want to eat the plants, not you: bear myths dispelled at upcoming Bear Day - Huntsville Doppler<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/bear-day-at-cavalcade\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Bears want to eat the plants, not you: bear myths dispelled at upcoming Bear Day - Huntsville Doppler\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Bears are misunderstood, perceived as dangerous, and often feared. 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