Making the River Safer for Anglers and Bears

SOLDOTNA -- There'll be some changes in how bears and humans see each other along the Russian River this summer, starting with the bears' hair.

As part of an interagency effort to pacify a danger zone where hundreds of anglers daily mingle with bears expecting to dine on human leftovers, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game plans to make over several grizzlies in bright shades of drugstore hair dye. The idea behind yellow, green, orange or blue bears is to make them instantly recognizable to anyone who reports an encounter, area wildlife biologist Jeff Selinger said.

http://dwb.adn.com/front/story/8902973p-8802899c.html

Sounds like a radical idea, but if you read the entire article, you'll see that bear specialists don't see dyeing the bears as a problem. With so many fishermen and bears congregating in the same place, there are bound to be confrontations. The best idea in the article is to give anglers a place to dispose of their fish carcasses so bears won't find huge piles of treats left by humans.