MISSOULA — Another day, another bear alert on the University of Montana (UM) campus.
Tuesday morning students and staff were warned about a bear spotted near Craig Hall. That's why MTN met with campus officials to learn more about UM's protocol and procedures for keeping students safe.
"I don't know if it was the same bear, but I saw a bear two nights ago, so maybe it's that one," first-year student Amory Kindle shared. "It's kind of an exciting thing for me that we live in a place [where] that can happen," he continued about seeing a bear on campus.
Whenever a bear is spotted at the university, the University of Montana Police Department (UMPD) sends an emergency push notification. Something that's required by federal law.
"We send a team, an officer out to check and locate the bear." UMPD Chief Brad Giffin explained. "They go anywhere where there's food, basically garbage cans," he continued.
However, Giffin said the frequency of the notifications can have unintended effects.
"To be honest, I have heard people freak out over it," Kindle stated. "These bear notices because they're so frequent. It kind of takes away the urgency of the message," Giffin added.
Not only could students ignore the frequent messages, Giffin said they could act on them and go looking for the bear.
"It causes an inability of us to get the bear off campus because usually they'll go up a tree or go to a spot that we want to try to remove them from. The other thing it could do is tend to aggravate an animal," he offered.
UMPD told MTN the best thing to do when there's an animal on campus is: to avoid it and stay aware.
"I think in everybody's best interest, including the bear. I mean, nobody would want to create a situation where maybe an officer would have to use some kind of force against a bear unnecessarily," said Giffin.
The university hosts bear-aware events like the Bear Aware Fair on Tuesday for students to learn about living near wildlife.
Kindle shared, "I think we're pretty well prepared to deal with it and it seems like as soon as it's noticed it's reported and I feel very safe."
