Bear basics taught in Florence area classroom
As we first reported last week, four bears created a safety concern near Siuslaw Elementary school. With two of the bears still roaming around officials decided it was a good time to teach some bear basics.
"How many of you have you seen a bear or had a bear in your neighborhood that you know of?" asks Doug Cottam with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.
A lot of hands shoot up at Siuslaw Elementary School when it comes to the question of bears. "This is one of the worst places certainly in the state," says Cottam.
So for the first time in Florence, Cottam is taking bear facts into the classroom. "This is the first time we've been able to capture 500 children in one room," Cottam explains.
With all eyes forward Cottam teaches them where bears live and how they find food. "Here's the biggest lesson: don't feed the bears," says Cottam in front of the kids.
He even shows them what they sound like using a recording, and tells kids how to stay safe. "Most importantly I'm going to talk about how you folks can be safe when we have bears living around here," Cottam says.
Which they do. Last week two bears were killed after showing aggressive behavior. And their home was found near the school playground.
"We want them to have a healthy respect for them. We're trying not to frighten them but we want to educate them about what to do if they do run into one face to face," Cottam explains.
To help the students recognize the bears they've actually brought in paws so the students can know what their prints will look like, but they've also brought some other props so that they can learn all about bears.
"I can tell it's from a black bear because it's pretty big and it's a black bear I can tell," one student explains. It's a tell-tale sign that the kids are learning but the most important message one students says "if you feed the bears, they'll keep on coming back and back."
It's a message that Cottam hopes will be one that the kids take home. "It's hard to catch 500 parents but this a great way to try to reach some of these kids parents," he explains.
Cottam say's they'll try to trap the bears one last time tonight if they don't show up he say's it's likely they've moved on.
