Re: Bears, Bears, Bears

John Merriman is a part-time instructor at Malaspina, with an M.Ed. He is NOT a biologist, however, the former principal of Malaspina was a Phd. ecologist, friend of mine for years and one of my bio. profs.

Merriman's ...major paper...according to Malaspina's website was about human-bear conflicts, he was a Conservation Officer here...this will account for the population estimates given; they are from the early '90s BC MoE estimates and far more recent data is available.

I will probably call him later today to chat and see if he has any more recent data as my original post here concerning bear populations/deaths by is pretty accurate as checks will substantiate.

I am very familiar with Malaspina as my friend/mentor was it's principal, my nephew was born and raised there in Nanaimo and obtained his BSc. honours degree there as a result of which he won a full scholarship in marine biology to The University of Queensland, in Aus. where he is now completing his Phd.

I was a Canadian Coast Guard Lightkeeper near Nanaimo and often visted Malaspina to use the library as is my right as a BC citizen and taxpayer, so, I am quite familiar with the bio. dept. there. Funny, one would expect data from the U of A studies to deal with the area concerned, I have some new stuff sent me by a researcher in Banff-Jasper on a disc last year, but, have no means of posting it here. I know more about wilderness, ecology and gear-bush living than I do about computers.