Bear expert Rachel Mazur at Smiley on May 17

Bear Smart Durango hosts an evening slideshow presentation with bear researcher Rachel Mazur, a recognized expert in black bear ecology and management from Reno, Nevada.

Rachel Mazur: Black bear facts, figures, findings, and some really cute cub photos

• Tues. May 17

• 7PM

Smiley Theater, 1309 E. Third Ave.

$7 for adults / $5 for children under 12

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Doors open at 6PM

• Free Ska beer

• Live music provided by Group Shower

• Door prizes

This event was made possible with the generous support of Ska Brewing Company, Zuberfizz, The Smiley Building, Gardenswartz Outdoors and Maria’s Bookshop.

More info? Contact Bear Smart at bp@frontier.net or 749-4262.

Dr. Rachel Mazur is a recognized expert in black bear ecology and management. Her research into aversive conditioning, social behavior, food storage, and foraging patterns has been published in scientific journals and is regularly featured in the media. She is also an award-winning author of the children's book, "If You Were A Bear." Rachel has also worked as a wildlife manager for over a decade, successfully reducing human-bear incidents by over 50% in high-profile areas of the western U.S.

bear film on city channel 10

The wonderful film, "Bears of Sequoia" airs on City Channel 10 through April 12. The film features bear researcher Rachel Mazur, guest speaker for an upcoming Bear Smart Durango educational event in May. Air times are:

Mon - 8:30 AM, 10:30 AM, 12:30 PM, 2:30 PM, 4:30 PM


Tue- 8:30 AM, 10:30 AM, 4:30 PM


2009 CDOW hair snag study

The preliminary report for the ongoing Colorado Division of Wildlife (CDOW) hair snag study entitled, "Non-Invasive DNA-Based Black Bear Density Estimates in Colorado - 2009," may be found on google docs, here.

Survey sites for the study were located near Tinidad and Glenwood Springs. The photo below, from the Northern Divide Grizzly Bear Project, is representational of a hair snag survey location, only.

Bear Film at The Back Space Theatre

The Back Space Theatre in partnership with Bear Smart Durango presents a showing of the film, “In The Company of Bears” as part of their post tour of films from the International Wildlife Film Festival, Thursday, March 31 at 6 p.m.

This film examines the relationship between people and bears, told through the eyes and experiences of Canadian black bear researcher, Michael Allen. It takes place in Whistler, British Columbia, where for the past 30 years bears and people have been living in great numbers. Michael's experiences and insight gives us hope that we may come to better understand bears, and make room for them in our world. Running time: 49 minutes.

A second film, “A Woman Among Wolves” follows after a brief intermission. Admission is $7 for adults, $5 for children and free for Bear Smart Durango members. Memberships will be available at the door the night of the event. For more information, email bp@frontier.net or call (970) 749-4262.

Seating is limited. The film will also be shown Sunday, April 3 at 11 a.m.

The Back Space Theatre

1120 Main Ave. Suite 2

Phone: (970) 259-7940

2010 Bear Summary Report

Bear Smart Durango compiled a summary of the 2010 Bear Incident & Sighting data in a printed report that was presented to city and county policy makers last month. This report was made possible only with considerable help from the following: Colorado Division of Wildlife, The Durango Herald, Ecosphere Environmental Services, Heather Johnson/CDOW Mammal Research, Living with Wildlife Advisory Board of La Plata County, City of Durango and La Plata County Government. Special thanks to: Town of Mancos, Town of Telluride, Town of Vail, City of Aspen, City of Ouray and Town of Snowmass Village.

In addition, in 2010, in our area (Area 15):

• 18 bears were killed as nuisances or shot by landowner

• 10 bears were killed by vehicles, or other

• 20 bears were relocated

You can view a pdf of this Summary Report.

fun fact for the day

The Durango area had more reports of bears getting into trash in one day in July 2010 than the Ohio Division of Wildlife received for the entire year.

You can read about an increase in black bear reports in Ohio here.

Below is a chart produced by the IBA's Bear Specialist Group on approaches to dealing with human-bear conflict. 1) Educating the public provides a base (but has its limitations and is in general, ineffective). 2) You can educate bears by teaching them acceptable behavior, hazing (short term), aversive conditioning (long-term). 3) You can manage bears (trapping and relocating, or killing, either as nuisances or by increased hunting). 4) By far the largest chunk in approaches is being pro-active by preventing problems (removing human-provided foods, i.e. trash, bird feeders, fruit).

One major roadblock we have in our approach locally is that in the time we're taking to reduce attractants, i.e. trash, bird feeders, etc. we are continuously training new bears, including young bears, on how to utilize human-provided foods - ensuring that problems will be ongoing.

An example: The very next morning after a bear was destroyed in town for biting a resident in July, a new bear was at the same location getting into trash.