Bears' Mountain Home to Host Next Winter Olympics' Skiiers

Taylor Kennedy
for National Geographic News

March 15, 2006

When Olympic skiers raced down the slopes of Turin this year, they
probably weren't running over hibernating bears.

But the athletes competing in the next Winter Olympics could do just that. Black bear dens are all over Whistler Mountain, the British Columbia (see map) site just north of Vancouver that will host the games in 2010.

(See a related photo gallery.)

Black bears are drawn to the mountain for the same reason as snow bunnies: the ski runs.

Where trees are cut down for the runs, grasses coat the disturbed areas of forest and provide prime grazing for the bears in spring.

The bears also fatten up on the autumn berries that pop up like weeds in the cleared areas.

Luckily for skiers, the bears sleep all winter, leaving the runs clear for most of the time people are around.

Midnight Raids

Independent researcher Michael Allen has been working with the Whistler area bears for over 14 years.

By tracking their behavior with both field observations and DNA testing, he monitors the feeding, breeding, and territory patterns of the animals.

Allen says it is not unusual to see ski tracks going right over a sleeping bear's den in the middle of winter. Cushioned from the noise under several feet of snow, the bear doesn't seem to mind.

During their waking hours, though, the bears are not always so placid, nor do they always stay on the mountain away from humans.

A few years ago one of the bears Allen studies started going through Whistler Village with her cub looking for midnight snacks.

Rather than shooting the rogue bear and cub, Whistler officials called Allen to see what could be done.

Knowing that, like most animals, bears are creatures of habit, he followed the bear for a few nights to discover its route through town.

He then traveled ahead of the animal each night and bear-proofed all the trash cans and garbage bins. Without food available at its usual stops, the bear had no incentive to visit town.

Feeling Neighborly

The incident is a sign that Whistler residents want to protect their bears. This positive attitude is due in part to Allen's efforts.

When not studying the bears in the field, the bear researcher shares his knowledge as he co-guides mountain ecology tours run by the Whistler-Blackcomb ski resort.

Combining lessons in the classroom with field trips in the mountains, Allen helps students—and their parents—learn more about their animal neighbors.

But visitors from outside the Whistler region may be less comfortable coexisting with bears, a serious concern considering the number of tourists that Olympic attention can bring to a community.

The Get Bear Smart Society, founded in Whistler, is therefore helping to educate tourists. The group's goal is peaceful coexistence with bears, and they believe community education is the way to achieve it.

The group puts out bear awareness information wherever they can: in public lectures, in notices at area trailheads, and even in a new set of educational bear-themed playing cards.

Arthur DeJong, director of mountain planning for the Whistler-Blackcomb ski areas, sees the community's interaction with the black bears as a critical test of humans' ability to live side by side with wildlife.

"If we fail as a community to find a way to successfully coexist with black bears, it would be a bleak indicator of the overall picture of conservation, because the black bear is so adaptive, so able to coexist with humans," he said.

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