With Spring around the corner, Wildsafe BC is offering a free online bear safety course.
Program Manager for Wildsafe BC Vanessa Isnardy said it takes about 30 minutes to complete and covers a wide range of topics and actions you can take to keep yourself safe and reduce conflicts with bears.
“Our Wildlife Alert Reporting Program, some bear attack statistics, as well as how to avoid negative bear encounters when recreating in beautiful British Columbia, we also review how to respond appropriately in a bear encounter depending on the bear’s behavior. We also provide a link to the Staying Safe in Bear Country video. It’s an additional 25 minutes but it’s well worth your time and we highly recommend it.”
Isnardy said Wildsafe BC offers 30 different programs throughout the year in addition to this recently created online bear safety course.
“We have been providing safety education for many years but this particular e-learning platform we just started implementing this last year, late into the Spring, and we’re very excited to have this opportunity to reach more people. Since we started the online bear safety course we’ve had over fifteen hundred enrollments so far.”
Isnardy also mentioned that their Wildsafe BC Coordinator will begin educating Cariboo residents about human-wildlife conflicts starting this April.