Clarification please. Northen Life reports that the Ontario MNR would like us to be ‘bear wise’ during this time of year when bears begin come out of hibernation. The article directs the reader to visit the ‘Bear Wise Website‘ for suggestions regarding dealing with bears. It is worth a look.

I will admit that I was not a fan of the cancellation of the spring bear hunt. It was politically motivated - far from science based. I should move on and I am.

My issue with this article is that it suggests we can encourage humans to co-exist with bears but the problem is (obviously) that it is impossible to tell the bear of our intentions. The idea of ‘co-existing’ sounds great on a theoretical and ‘cum-ba-yah’ type discussion, but in reality, I am not sure anyone can say what exactly this means. As you would expect, I believe time and science has shown that hunting is an effective wildlife management tool. When I hear the terms ‘co-exist’ they usual come from emotional discussions about managing wildlife that exclude hunting.

Thoughts?

Bill Anderson - Muskoka Outdoors