2. Spiritual/Cultural Footprints (15 min.)  

Purpose:
-To explore the concept of footprint as a metaphor for lasting impressions imprinted as spiritual beliefs and cultural practices
-To explore the lasting impressions bears have made on human culture and on us as individuals

Panel:
Bears Feared, Revered, and Endeared
-A physical footprint represents a creature that has passed by – we know that something has been here, we have the physical evidence to prove it.
-A cultural or spiritual footprint is what the experience or knowledge of the bear leaves behind on our being, a lasting impression we carry with us.

-Bears have left their footprint on human culture for as long bears and humans have coexisted – thousands of years.
-For example, aboriginal peoples considered grizzlies “medicine men.” Why? (Because of their use of roots – they are one of the few animals (besides humans) who seek out roots as a food source.)
-Roots are used in many traditional medicines. Aboriginal medicine men drew on the knowledge and power of the bear to heal, they wore grizzly claw necklaces and sometimes bear skins when performing healing rituals.
-Today, roots are used in alternative medicines and healing practices. This is one way in which the bear left its “footprint” on humans.

Image:
Big Bear Medicine by Dale Auger
-What’s happening in this painting? (Explore student responses. Perhaps a healing ceremony is being performed.)
-This painting reflects Aboriginal beliefs about the connection between the animal world, the human world, and the spirit world. It reflects a belief that there wasn’t separation between those worlds, and that animals and humans communicated and even exchanged shapes, and spirits were a tangible presence.
-Bears left a deep impression or “footprint” on aboriginal cultures and figure prominently in aboriginal spirituality reflected in the ceremonies and religious beliefs as a result.

-We can follow the bear’s footprints from these ancient days into our lives today.
-Who remembers any bear stories from childhood? (Eg: Winnie the Pooh, Goldilocks, Teddy Bears, Smokey, Yogi Bear)
-Did they leave any lasting impressions, or influence your understanding of bears?
-Discuss.
-In one of Aesop’s fables, (Two Travelers and a Bear, 1919) two men were traveling together through a forest when a huge bear crashed out of the forest right in front of them. One man climbed a tree for safety. The other, unable to fight the bear alone, threw himself on the ground and played dead. The bear sniffed by the man’s head a while, then walked away. The man in the tree climbed down and asked, “It looked as if the bear whispered in your ear. What did he say?” The other replied, “That it is not at all wise to keep company with a fellow who would desert his friend in a moment of danger.” All Aesop’s fables have a moral, or lesson. What’s the moral of this story? (Misfortune is the true test of friendship.)  
-Do you think the bear left a footprint on the two travelers?

-Unfortunately, we have left a footprint on bears that act like Yogi – What does that footprint carry? (The desire for human food.) Habituation is a major cause of bear deaths. Not a very positive footprint, is it?

Panel: Grizzly Bears
-In the natural world, how is bear “culture” is passed down?
-Look at photograph of mother bear and cubs.
-It reflects values: protection and education of young.
-Mother bears leave a “footprint” on their cubs. Bear behaviour is learned, not instinctive. That’s why the young stay with their mothers for so long, sometimes as long as four years - they have a lot to learn like human babies who stay with their parents the longest of all mammals.

-Putting things on a personal level, who has seen a bear in the wild? How did it make you feel? (get impressions: excited, scared, thrilled, mixed emotions)

-“The presence of even one grizzly on the land elevates the mountains, deepens the canyons, chills the winds, brightens the stars, darkens the forest and quickens the pulse of all who enter.” -John Murray

3. Ecological/Environmental (15 Min.) 

Purpose:
-To explore the ecological relationship among humans, bears and other species in the Rockies.

-There is a third kind of footprint we are going to talk about today. Who remembers what it is? It has to do with the environment.
-The ecological footprint measures our impact on nature. In order to live, people consume what nature offers. So, every one of us has an impact on our planet. This is not bad as long as we don't take more from the Earth than it has to offer. But are we taking more than we should?
-Keep in mind that we need to leave room for not only other people, but for the 25 million other species on the planet. Already, humanity's footprint may bigger than what nature can provide.

-Our ecological footprint gets bigger the more gas we burn travelling in a day, the more processed food we eat, the more running water we use – we could calculate our ecological footprint by figuring out how much land it takes to produce those things. People are using more and more resources to travel further, build bigger houses – encroaching more and more on the wilderness in order to produce those products. Canadians have BIG ecological footprints because of our climate and increased population.
-A grizzly, on the other hand, even though his home range can be 1000 – 2000 km2, its impact on the environment is much less than ours. He eats what’s available naturally, doesn’t burn hydrocarbons, gives back to the landscape by redistributing roots and corms, seeds through scat.

Panel:
Bird’s Eye View
-Point out map that tracks and times a grizzly’s movement over 10 hours. Why do you think it moves such a great distance in such a short period? (Food is not abundant in Rockies, they have to cover distances to find enough to eat.)
-A grizzly’s home range is the territory it covers to find all the things it needs to survive.
-Hold stencil of grizzly paw print to overlap photo image of habitat.
-Imagine this stencil is a magnifying glass. What other living things would you see in this environment? ( deer, lynx, rabbit, owls, birds, plants…)
-Grizzlies are an umbrella species – their home ranges cover so much territory that many other animals thrive in their footprint.
-That means they are also an indicator species – that means the health of the grizzly population is an indication of the health of other species, and ultimately the health of the planet. If they are not doing well, other species are also likely at risk.
-In Canada right now grizzlies are considered ‘at risk.’ They are not on the threatened or endangered list but populations are declining.
-Deaths are mostly human caused, not natural. That’s because with so many people living in and visiting Banff, humans and grizzlies sometimes live within each other’s footprints. It is hard to make everyone understand how they need to behave in bear country in order to keep bears wild.
-The two main threats to bear survival are: loss of habitat (human development in bear country) A bear needs lots of space; and habituation (bears who are used to human food and presence) Food from humans means death for a bear. “A fed bear is a dead bear.”

-Here’s a true story we can all learn from:
-Grizzly #16 was born in the wild and lived with his mother for the first few years of his life. When he struck out on his own, his home range included the Bow Valley, and he encountered humans in his search for natural food. At first he appeared indifferent to humans, wandering slowly away if they got too close. Warden’s hazing didn’t affect him much. He learned that humans were apparently harmless. Because he didn’t act aggressively toward humans, people came closer, and #16 got even more used to being around people. At some point he tasted food from human sources. Remnants of sandwiches were found at bear jams. His behaviour toward people changed as #16 began to associate humans with food. He no longer left the area when he saw people, he became aggressive toward them. He was seen in the towns of Field and Lake Louise, and began to approach people in search of food. He posed too great a risk to human safety so wardens relocated him to a wilderness area. When he returned to the Bow Valley he was relocated to the Calgary Zoo in 1996. If a zoo was not able to take him, he would have been destroyed.
-Show photo of Skoki in Calgary Zoo.
-#16 is now called Skoki. Is he lucky to be alive? While he is as good as dead to the ecosystem because he can no longer contribute genetically to his species, he lives to teach an important lesson: What can we learn from his story? (a fed bear is a dead bear. People are the cause of habituation, and it can be avoided by not stopping at roadside to watch bears, keeping human food out of bears reach, giving bears the space they need…)

4. Activity (15 min.)

Purpose:
-To reinforce program’s main messages
-To provide a tangible reminder of the experience that embodies these messages
-To emphasize that responsibility for the health of the planet is shared by all of us

-Conservation – of grizzly habitat and wild nature of grizzly bears - is necessary to ensure the survival of grizzlies.
“In conservation, science tells us what to do; but values tell us why we should do it.”
–Dr. Reed Noss, conservation biologist.

-Let’s talk about values for a moment. Do you value bears? Why are they important? (They are beautiful, awe-inspiring creatures, they have been part of human existence for thousands of years, they are an important part of the ecosystem, they tell us how well we are doing with preserving wilderness…)
-To ensure bears survive, we have to be aware of how our footprint affects bears.
-Show image of bear footprint overlapping habitat.
-We’ve looked at what lives within a bear’s footprint, what lives within yours?
-How big is your footprint? What survives within it? What doesn’t? What do you take out of the environment? What do you put back?
-How big is a bear’s footprint? What lives within a bear’s footprint?
What does the bear take out? What does he put back?

-Draw or trace one of your feet on tracing paper (with or without shoes)
-Draw or trace a grizzly footprint on tracing paper
-Write/draw what exists within each of the footprints.
-Add notes about what they mean – how our footprints affect bears, a wish, a poem

-Find a quiet spot to work. Take a closer look at exhibit to get ideas. Come back in 10 minutes with ideas, notes images.

Regroup and discuss as a group:
-What did you come up with?
-Do the two footprints have any common elements?– environmentally, physically, spiritually?
-What happens when you overlap them? Discuss implications of people living too close to bears.