Coexisting with
Carnivores
How can we as humans meet
our needs while allowing
carnivores to meet theirs?
STEP 1 – CARNIVORE EXPERIENCES
In small groups or as a class, discuss the experiences you or your family members have had with carnivores in your
community. Make sure to share the stories you heard during your interview! Take notes below on the types of
interactions people have had.
-Coyote sighting (4)
-Bobcat food interaction (5)
-Human interaction with bear den (1)
-Bear sighting (6)
-Unknown interaction with trash (10)
-Unknown interaction with pets (1)
-Raccoon interacting with trash (11)
-Raccoon food interaction (5)
-Black bear trash interaction (4)
-Black bear food interaction (5)
-Black bear attracted to pet (2)
-Cougar sighting (4)
STEP 2 – COMMON THEMES
Review your notes for step 1 and look for similarities or trends in the experiences people shared.
Were they mostly positive, negative, or neutral from the perspective of the humans involved?
Where did the interactions most often take place? What types of interactions were the most
frequent? Do you notice anything that a lot of the stories had in common?
-Trash
-Raccoons
-Bear
STEP 2.5 – BRAINSTORMING PROBLEMS
Looking at the most common issues you identified in steps 1 and 2, brainstorm some problems
for which we can find solutions. Describe why do you think you focused on these problems.
-Black bear eating berries in your yard.
-Bear, raccoons and possibly unknown animals getting into trashcans.
-Carnivores are getting into pet food left outside.
-Carnivores trying to get pets.
STEP 3 – BRAINSTORMING SOLUTIONS
Looking at the most common problems you identified in step 2.5, brainstorm some solutions that
you think will solve these problems. Describe why do you think your solutions might help.
-Bear safe cans/lock on lid
-Place mothballs in trash to repel carnivores
-Put an alarm to go off if a carnivore comes near
-Put out trash cans in the morning of trash day instead of the night before.
-Put trash in an enclosed area (fence/garage)
STEP 4 – THE EVIDENCE
From your list of potential solutions, pick one that you think will work best. IN order to
demonstrate why this solution will work, you must have evidence to support your claim (idea).
Describe what types of evidence or information would help to demonstrate that your solution
will help people coexist with carnivores in your community. Why would that evidence help
support your solution?
-Did you have an interaction with carnivore trash?
-When do people put their trashcans out?
STEP 5 – THE VARIABLES
Look at the evidence that you want to collect and choose the ONE factor that you want to
measure and examine. This is your Responding Variable: The number of Carnivore Trash
Interactions
Your project will be examining how your responding variable changes under different conditions
(ex. with or without something, different sizes or types of things). What are some different
conditions that can provide evidence to your solution?
Pick ONE of these conditions that you want to examine. This will be your Manipulated Variable:
The time you put the trash out (morning of or night before).
STEP 6 – INVESTIGATIVE QUESTION:
Now you can write your investigative question. Your question should ask how changing your
manipulated variable will impact your responding variable.
-How will putting out trashcans in the morning affect the number of carnivore trash interactions?
STEP 7 – PREDICTION
Now we are going to make our official prediction. What do you think the results will be?
-If we put the trashcans out in the morning, then the number of carnivore trash interactions will
go down because. . .
-Carnivores don’t like to be seen and can sneak around at night because people are
sleeping.
-The carnivores don’t have as much time to get the trash if you put the trash out in the
morning.
-More people are up in the morning and people might chase off the carnivore.
STEP 8 – INVESTIGATIVE METHODS
How are you going to do your investigation? What are the steps you will take to get the
observations and data you need to back up your predictions?
-Setting up cameras
-Put out trash at different times
-go and ask neighbors if you see trash spread around
Keeping track on a calendar (routine of trash day)
-doing surveys (door to door/mailboxes in neighborhood, e-survey, website, e-blast!!!)
-can base survey questions off parent survey
-Have you had a carnivore/trash interaction?
-When do you put your trashcan out?
Methods
• Camera trap (3) – interesting, collect pictures of animal, date & time
collected by camera (-) can only set up one
• Survey (1) – makes it easier to collect data from lots of people &
different neighborhoods
• Interviewing neighbors about trash can interactions (3) – get history
of interactions in neighborhood, walk around door to door & ask
when put out trash & interactions (tally results)
• Walking survey (5) – combine with existing routine, collect data for
whole neighborhood, get visual data yourself about trash can
interactions, get more data than one, get data about your
neighborhood (could do this in teams or take turns, go as groups)
Walking Survey Methods
• Trash days are Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday
• Check the night before and the morning of trash day
• Time of survey PM: 6:00-8:00 PM
• Time of survey AM: 5:00–7:00 AM
• Weekly
• Same amount of houses or a ratio
Next Steps
• Finish walking survey protocol (schedule, number of houses, etc.)
• Send any questions to the zoo. We’re happy to help!
• Decide if going to interview neighbors
• Plan extra evidence opportunities (e.g. camera traps)