by Nils Pedersen | Aug 19, 2022 | Media
Protection. Insurance. Morale boosters. This is how firefighters on the Dalton Highway Complex describe Mardy and Rio, the two Karelian bear dogs who help to keep them safe from bears, moose, and other large animals. Currently, firefighters on the northern end of the...
by Nils Pedersen | Aug 19, 2022 | Media
In 2003, when the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife launched their Karelian Bear Dog Program (KBDP) with one dog, Mishka, it was viewed as an anomaly, an outlier, a longshot that would probably fail. Yet it didn’t. Instead, it was successful and quickly...
by Nils Pedersen | Mar 29, 2022 | Media
You can’t scare easily when all that stands between you and a 600-pound grizzly is a couple of barking dogs. Carrie Hunt apparently comes by that naturally. The founder and director of Florence’s Wind River Institute–Wind River Karelian Bear Dog Partners has spent...
by Nils Pedersen | Mar 29, 2022 | Media
BLM Alaska Fire Service’s Mike Bradley talks to Nils Pedersen and Wildlife K-9s Soledad, Rio and Mardy of the Wind River Institute about how the bear dogs work to deter interactions between firefighting personnel and bears, educating people on methods to...
by Nils Pedersen | Mar 29, 2022 | Media
Wind River Bear Institute biologists and their Karelian Bear Dog Partners presenting a live demonstration on the use of these highly trained Wildlife K-9s in preventing or reducing human/wildlife conflict. Watch these “bear shepherds” in action as they teach both...
