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Whistler bears to be featured in book series

Vancouver publisher invites local black bear expert Michael Allen to write about his experiences with bears Michael Allen says he knows of at least a dozen bears in Whistler that haven’t gone into winter hibernation just yet, but he is confident

Vancouver publisher invites local black bear expert Michael Allen to write about his experiences with bears

Michael Allen says he knows of at least a dozen bears in Whistler that haven’t gone into winter hibernation just yet, but he is confident they will start heading up the mountain as soon as Whistler Valley sees its first big snowfall of the season.

Then it will be time for Allen to do a little hibernating himself. The black bear researcher recently signed a contract with Raincoast Books of Vancouver to write a pair of books on the bears, including his own experiences in the field over the past 15 years. Raincoast hit the jackpot as the Canadian publisher of the Harry Potter series.

According to Allen, he was approached by Allan MacDougall, the president of Raincoast Books, who has a place in Whistler and has been following Allen’s work through his columns in Pique. After meeting with a publisher and going over his material, Raincoast decided that there was more than enough material for two books.

The first book, which will be targeted to adults, will be published in the spring of 2004. The second book, a resource book for kids and students, is due in the fall of 2004.

While Allen says it’s a big job, especially the longer adult book, he’s looking forward to finally putting his collected research and field experiences together.

"I’ve been studying bears for 15 years now, starting in the Kootenays in 1987 and then moving to Whistler in 1994, and I’ve got lots to say," said the 37-year-old Allen. "You spend so much time in the bush that you’re literally overflowing with the things that you find out. It’s been interesting. This is a good way to get all of that out, and share that knowledge and those experiences with the public."

In Whistler, Allen has been known to camp overnight in bear territory, and is well known to many of the local bears. He has practically immersed himself into the population, studying them up close in their natural habitat. Allen once commented that the bears, which are shy and over protective of their territories, have accepted him as one of their own.

He has shared his experiences with Pique readers for more than six years now, and has been featured in magazines, newspapers, and a BBC documentary.

He has conducted black bear sightseeing tours with Whistler-Blackcomb, conducted slide shows and presentations on the bears, and recently started a youth program where kids assist with his research.

In addition to education, Allen has helped with initiatives to bear-proof Whistler, including the landfill area, and cut down on the number of bear kills in town.

Public awareness and acceptance, the kind he hopes to foster through his books, is a key factor in the well-being of bear populations.

"There are three things that have the most impact on bear populations. The first is weather, which can’t really be controlled, you have good years and bad years, and the bears just respond the best they can," Allen says.

"The second thing is huckleberries, which depend a lot on the weather. If it’s a good year, you’re going to have more cubs, less problems with garbage bears and break-ins and things like that.

"The third thing, which is sometimes the most importance, is human tolerance. We’ve done a lot over the years to reduce the number of bear and human conflicts, like bear-proof garbage bins and fences at the dump, and the people here really seem to care about their bears. As a result we have a healthy population. Bears also need space, territory, places to den during the winter, ways to travel from place to place, and we’re doing pretty well there, too."

Allens says he knows of 84 bears in the Whistler area, including between 25 and 30 breeding females. That’s still too many for an area this size, but it’s down from the numbers Whistler used to have because of open garbage cans and easy access to the landfill – a time when up to 20 bears were killed each year due to human-bear conflicts.

"Things are getting better, for bears and people," Allen says.

According to Allen, the adult book will be a narrative, starting with his earliest encounters with bears, the reasons he got into the research, the process of getting to know the bears, and his experiences conducting research in the field – what worked and what was less successful. The book will also be filled with facts, maps, graphs, and photographs.

"Some of it is scientific, but I want to tell the story in such a way that anybody can read it and enjoy it," says Allen.

The book will focus on four major areas.

The first area is bear families, studying mothers with newborn and yearling cubs, as well as a female bear’s strategies for feeding, weight-gain, territory, cub rearing and weaning.

"The females are really the barometer for the whole population in that they will ultimately determine how healthy a population is. If the females are doing well, then everything is working," says Allen.

The second area is huckleberries, which is a staple food for local bears, and affects the way bears interact and reproduce. A poor crop usually also typically leads to more conflicts with humans.

The third area is denning. "I’ve been really successful in looking, and have found over 200 dens, probably 150 of which are active. Denning depends on weather, the number of old growth trees, and human tolerance – I’ve found over 70 dens in the ski area boundary, so this reflects the relationship between the resort and the bears’ ability to sleep comfortably as hundreds of thousands of skiers pass by," he says.

The fourth area is Allen’s work with kids, field trips, bear education, and the importance of getting the younger generation in Whistler involved in caring for the local bear population.

The children’s book will include a lot of the same information as the adult book, with more illustrations and graphics, and less text. The goal is to create something that kids can use for class projects, or read to satisfy their own curiosity. It will include stories about individual bears and families, and will follow a few mother bears to see what they go through in a year.

In addition to the books, Allen will also be working on another documentary for BBC television that will focus on a cycle of motherhood for a female bear, starting "hopefully" with the birth of cubs, and following their development into adult bears.

This is Allen’s third BBC project. His first bear documentary, In the Company of Bears, was filmed in 1998-99. A second documentary on cougars, which was filmed in 2001-2002 will be released shortly.

"It’s amazing to see the interest in what I do from Vancouver and Europe and the United States, because it’s really about Whistler. This is all happening in our backyard," says Allen.