Thursday 6 April 2017

A Visit From the "Bear Lady"

Today, Christine from the North Shore Black Bear Society came to visit our classroom.  She taught us all about what to do if we encounter a bear in our neighbourhoods.  She also taught us ways that we can help bears stay in their natural habitats, by not attracting them to people places with our garbage or food scraps.  



We talked about keeping our garbage and food scrap bins secure until they are ready to be picked up.

She explained to us that a natural food for bears is fish and taught us some more interesting facts.  She said that the bears just eat certain parts of the fish (the eyes, the brain and the eggs, if there are any) and leave the rest in the forest or by the river's edge.  The fish then decays and acts as food for the trees and plants growing nearby.  Christine told us that you can tell when it's a "good fish year" by looking at tree rings.  If there was a lot of fish in a particular year, that year's ring on the tree would be bigger.  

Then, she told us that just like you can tell the age of a tree by counting the rings, scientists can tell the age of a bear in a similar way.  If a bear's tooth is cut in half, it contains rings that can be counted to determine the bear's age.  Fascinating!

Then Christine shared a book all about bears.  We learned about cubs and what they do to learn the ways of an adult bear.

Please look in your child's home envelope for a bookmark and a brochure from the North Shore Black Bear Society.

Reminder: Tomorrow we are walking to Sutherland in the afternoon to attend our first session with the Young Actor's Project.

No comments:

Post a Comment