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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...

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...

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 eliminate...

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...

Dogs put to work in Girdwood in attempt to reduce bear conflicts with residents  Author: Tess Williams  Updated: 6 days ago  Published June 24 A black bear walks down a residential street in Girdwood on June 16, 2021. (Marc Lester / ADN) As Nils Pedersen rounds a...

Alaskans are used to seeing bears in their neighborhoods. Nils Pedersen and his Karelian Bear Dogs, Soledad, Rio, and Mardy work together to reduce human-bear conflict in Alaska. Nils is the Director of the Wind River Bear Institute, which was founded to provide innovative, non-lethal solutions to complex human-wildlife conflict issues.