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WEST YELLOWSTONE - A process that began nearly 5 years ago and 6,000 miles away has entered what biologists hope is its final phase. This week the Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center kicked off its Bear Resistant Container Testing Program for the year by retesting the final modifications made to the world traveling Slovak Trash Container. Testing protocol requires that containers must remain intact after a total of 60 minutes of contact time with the Center's collections of brown bears. During it's initial session the Slovak container survived 30 minutes of contact with Sam, a 900 pound brown bear from Kodiak Island. During the remainder of the week the container will be baited and tested by the bears in the Discovery Center. If the container lasts 30 more minutes without being breached, then it will garner the seal of approval of the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee Bear Resistant Container Program.
Modifications to the Slovak Container were engineered by Haul-All, a Canadian trash container company. The modifications will be applied in Slovakia by Mevaco, the Slovakian trash container manufacturer. The local government of the High Tatras in Slovakia has agreed to test the modified containers in areas were a high number of conflicts currently exist between bears and humans. If the tests prove successful, the government has agreed to reguire use of the modified containers in high conflict areas.
The project has been spearheaded by the Slovak Wildlife Society (SWS) and aided by Gregg Losinski of the Idaho Department of Fish & Game, an advisor to SWS.
