What Bears Teach Us

Alberta’s wilderness is a rich place to live, recreate and co-exist with wildlife. Yet, are we doing enough to live harmoniously with wildlife? The speaker examines landscapes holistically, aiming to create management practices that balance biological, social and cultural needs. Through research & conservation work, Sarah sheds new light on bears, seeing them as more than just data points and graphs, studying their behaviour and habitat use and defining ways to incorporate that data into land management and planning. As an author, the speaker will share personal stories from the field, amazing photographs of bear behaviour and some of the current science about bear behavior and coexistence, as well as some excerpts from her new book “What Bears Teach Us.” Speaker: Sarah Elmeligi PhD Sarah Elmeligi has been passionate about conserving Alberta’s wildlife and wild landscapes since she was a child exploring Banff National Park with her parents. Sarah believes that most wildlife management is really about managing people. Throughout her work, she has worked closely with communities, stakeholders, First Nations Governments, and park visitors to advocate for the creation of new protected areas, improve land management, and to effectively engage communities in conservation. Sarah has worked for Alberta Parks as a Planner designing facility plans to improve the ecological integrity of Kananaskis Protected Areas while creating high-quality recreation opportunities. Sarah believes in the inherent value of Alberta’s wilderness and ensuring human practices are sustainable and in balance with the needs of wildlife and ecosystems. Her first full length book, “What Bears Teach Us”, focuses on the human-bear relationship and how we can achieve coexistence. She currently owns and operates Sarah E Consulting and lives in Canmore, Alberta with her husband, daughters, dog, and cats. Sarah holds an undergraduate degree in Zoology from the University of Alberta, Masters at the University of Northern British Columbia and completed her doctoral work at Central Queensland University. Date and time: Thursday December 10, 2020 at 2:00 PM YouTube Live link: https://youtu.be/fSCzeI-GWIs In order to ask questions of our speaker in the chat feature of YouTube, you must have a YouTube account and be signed in. Please do so well ahead of the scheduled start time, so you’ll be ready. Go the YouTube Live link provided in this session flyer and on the top right of your browser click the “sign in” button. If you have Google or Gmail accounts, they can be used to sign in. If you don’t, click “Create Account” and follow along. Once you are signed in, you can return to the live stream and use the chat feature to ask your questions of the speaker. Remember you can only participate in the chat feature while we are livestreaming. Link to SACPA’s YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFUQ5mUHv1gfmMFVr8d9dNA