WSPA bear expert's blog returns!
May 18, 2010
Victor Watkins, WSPA Wildlife Advisor, is heading to Tbilisi, Georgia to attend the 2010 International Bear Association (IBA) conference and will be reporting back on the big issues faced by the world’s bears in a dedicated blog, starting Friday 14 May.
Victor, along with WSPA bear project colleagues Neil D’Cruze and Iris Mazurek will be attending the 19th week-long IBA conference, which will host bear experts and field workers from around the world as they share their knowledge and experience in a series of fascinating presentations and workshops.
Read the first blog post now >>
The IBA is dedicated to the scientific research of bears and the biggest global organisation of bear specialists, with over 550 members from 50 countries.
The return of Victor’s bear blog
Some people may remember that this is not the first time Victor, a world authority on bear welfare having worked with bears since 1990, has blogged on bears for WSPA.
In December 2008, he ran a popular blog around the Animal Planet Bear Sanctuary TV series, which focussed on the fantastic work carried out at the WSPA-funded Romanian bear sanctuary.
For those not yet familiar with Victor’s tremendous breadth of knowledge and obvious love for the bears he works so hard to protect, they will be in for a treat as they follow this special bear blog, which will be running for two weeks and closing on Friday 28 May.
What will the blog cover?
While the IBA conference itself is for the world’s bear specialists, Victor will be blogging for fellow bear lovers and bear experts alike, to share the IBA-conference attendees’ combined knowledge with the wider world.
All visitors to the blog are welcome; from those teachers and classes who have used WSPA UK’s Bears of the World schools pack, to interested members of the public and higher education students studying zoology and other animal-specific courses.
Victor’s blog posts will bring to life a wide range of topics raised during the specialist presentations, discussions and documentaries on issues affecting the world’s bears, including conservation, behaviour, ecology, genetics and habitat use.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature lists six of the world’s eight species of bear as vulnerable or endangered and inevitably this sadly means that bears are faced with a wide range of threats to their welfare.
Significance of the Georgia conference
Georgia is a crossroad between the East and West, symbolically representing the purpose of this conference – to promote the exchange of information between bear specialists from the West and the East in equal measure.
The IBA normally holds a conference every two years, but the 2008 Georgian-hosted event was dramatically put on hold when the country was suddenly plunged into conflict with Russia that summer.
In a show of solidarity to the host organisation, NACRES (Georgian Centre for Biodiversity Conservation and Research), the IBA chose to wait and hold the conference in 2010.
WSPA has a ten-year history of contact with NACRES, when the two organisations worked together to try and find a solution to bear cubs being taken from the wild and being used as pets or tourist attractions in the late nineties.
Victor said: “I’m really looking forward to hearing from and meeting fellow bear specialists during this week long meeting in Georgia and sharing my experiences with you all on the bear blog.”
At the 2010 conference, a key theme will be the many aspects of human bear conflict, an issue WSPA has been heavily involved with over the years, and rescued bear care in bear sanctuaries will also feature.