By Jim Stanford on March 19, 2007
Were you freaked out by those photos of a mountain lion purportedly taken in Rafter J?
The Wyoming Game and Fish Department is hosting a free workshop from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. Tuesday at Snow King Resort, titled “Staying Safe in Bear, Lion and Wolf Country.”
Among the tips Game and Fish will share are mountain lion and bear feeding habits, where you’d expect to find those animals (not on your back porch in Rafter J) and what to do if you have an encounter.
The workshop comes as the snow is melting, hikers are beginning to head into the hills, and bears are leaving their dens.
“We’ve found there are a lot of people out there who aren’t really sure how they would react if confronted by a bear or mountain lion,” says Mark Gocke, spokesman for Game and Fish.
“These workshops are about providing people with good, practical information on how to prevent conflicts and what to do in an encounter with one of these large predators.”
The workshop also will cover wolves, helping to dispel the myth of the Big Bad Wolf.
“Wolves have never been known for attacking people, and we don’t expect that to change,” says Gocke. “But more people are encountering wolves and people have questions about their safety around wolves, so we added some information.”
For more information, contact the Jackson Game and Fish office at (307) 733-2321.
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The department also will set big game hunting seasons during a meeting from 7 to 9 p.m. April 3 in Jackson. Among the proposed changes are shortening the deer season in the Wyoming Range, more liberal regulations for hunting elk in the Fall Creek herd, and allowing moose hunting in the Teton Wilderness.
For more details, e-mail Mark.Gocke@wgf.state.wy.us.
Posted under bears, hunting, mountain lions, wildlife, wolves
