Black Bears are something of an icon at Big Canoe. Between the Black Bear Society, Black Bear Project, the Black Bear Pub, our wooden Black Bear at the Beach Club and more, it’s not a stretch to consider our furry co-habitants the face of our community.
Living with the bears, however, has been a challenge for as long as there has been a Big Canoe. It’s no wonder then that Dr. Robert Platt, our former resident ecologist, wrote about these animals for the benefit of Big Canoe.
In this document, Platt details the habits of the bears, including how they raise their young and how they typically interact with humans. Platt also explains the best safety practices when encountering these magnificent animals.
Georgia Department of Natural Resources in 2021 reported that there are about 4,100 black bears in our state. While Dr. Platt hailed conservation efforts to preserve the animals when he wrote his piece in the ’70s or early ’80s, bears can now be legally hunted during the fall hunting season according to the Georgia Natural Resources regulations.
For more information about blacks bears and bear safety, check out Bearwise.org.
The Black Bear Project will also be hosting an event on Aug. 1 with guest speaker Gerald Hodge. Hodge is the founder and CEO of the nonprofit organization Appalachia Georgia Friends of the Bears. He will discuss how the community can co-exist with the bears. Learn more about that event in Lisa Crow’s Inside the Gates article.
The post Reflections at 50: Dr. Platt and the Black Bears appeared first on Inside the Gates.