FRI’s very successful Within Growling Distance interpretive program was delivered at Gregg Lake Amphitheatre in William A. Switzer Provincial Park, northwest of Hinton, AB. Extension specialist Joan Simonton presented an interactive slide show about FRI’s grizzly bear research while Isabella Hodson, a park interpreter, was on hand to engage the audience with a fun demonstration on bear strength and safety. Did you know that the force of a grizzly bears’ bite can be 1,500 psi!
The interactive nature of this program is enjoyed by all who take great delight seeing the children (and sometimes adults!) on stage in costume. From bear identification, umbrellas, helicopters, culvert traps, tranquilizer darts, GPS collars, cool videos, maps, hair snags and scatt… studying grizzly bears is exciting and important work!
About 80 people attended the evening show on August 20th, 2011. “The program was a big hit and the campers I spoke with on Sunday said it was nice to see an in-depth program where they could actually see the results of studies, as well as biologists and field work in action”, says Hobson, making the program well worth doing.