Bears and People
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Human populations have grown, almost tripled only in this century,
and the people need more space. More and more land is needed
for farming, forestry, industry and housing. This has happened very
fast that no kind of bear is common, and some like giant panda bear
and spectacled bear are very rare. Bears are threaten even in protected areas.
The greatest threat to bears has been loss of their habitats, their homes...
The problem is that once a population becomes small the stochastic or random factors
become much more important.
Bear owners from the cities of eastern Europe and Asia train bear to walk on their back legs and
perform different tricks.
(picture left by Alojzije Frkovic in ex Yugoslavia show brown bear on its back legs
as performer. It seems to be tradition in many parts of eastern Europa).
They simple make money from their performing animals. This practice
has been banned in western Europe at the beginning of this century. But hunter that looking
for a young bear to train will shoot his mother dead: to sell her fur and to prevent her defending her
cub.
Many bears are threaten as endangered and have protected status but people still hunting the bears...
to make trophy, for food (making soup), for fun, for traditionaly medicine (some people believe that a bears gall bladder can cure certain illnesses),
for making clothing...
We (the people) need to know more about bears to be able to protect them and
give them enough space to survive over the long term. The destruction and disruption of their habitats
is enorm threat to the survival of bears and giving them protected areas can
be considered a refuge from extinction.
Many bear populations have reached the point where they cannot persist on their own
without us, without human help. We have today only a few safe places for bears such as
the Kitlope Wildereness, Khutzymateen Valley Wilderness, the Spirit Bear Wilderness and maybe a couple more.
But those area are not enough to ensure the persistence of bear populations.
We need to know that they are only about 1000 panda left. Tomorrow we may be sorrow.
The best thing that we (people) can do is to tolerate wildlife nearby, understand their needs and give them
the space they need. We need to start today with conservation because tomorrow will be late.
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