The bear necessities of conservation messaging: exploring how to effectively communicate safety information to people visiting bear country

Abstract

Reducing human–bear conflict is an ongoing challenge for wildlife managers. Traditional wildlife education involves a variety of text-based educational material of which little evaluation has been done. The overarching goal of this thesis is to examine current bear aware programs found in North America and suggest some of the reasons why they may be ineffective. Analysis of seven ‘bear programs’ was conducted and a survey (n=279) administered at the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center during the summer of 2014. Findings suggest that the large number of messages found in bear aware programs explain some of the confusion among participants. Additionally, the research examines how a person’s risk perception to a hypothetical bear encounter can be influenced by the medium used in the survey. The research concludes that using experiential education techniques may be more effective at increasing knowledge levels and developing effective emotional responses during bear encounters than traditional educational material.