news
A voluntary educational program aimed at ensuring black bear hunters
are able to successfully distinguish black bears from grizzly is now
on line in February on the Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks^ web site.
The new training is free and can be accessed at fwp.state.mt.us/bearid.
"We designed a website application consisting of a training and
testing module available to anyone with an internet-linked computer
anywhere in the world," said Thomas Baumeister, FWP Hunter Education
Coordinator. "The overall message is ^not all bears are easy to
identify^ and ^if in doubt, don^t shoot.^"
Hunters or others interested in learning to accurately identify bears
are able to print a certificate of completion if they score 80
percent or better on the training. The questions are randomly
selected from a large pool of possible questions, so no test is
identical and taking the same test twice is nearly impossible.
Participants take a pre- and post-exam to help assess their progress.
The program also provides instant feedback, including an explanation
of the correct answer so the user can learn from mistakes.
"Too few opportunities exist for hunters to acquire the knowledge and
skill to do the right thing," Baumeister said. "With this bear ID web-
based training, we^re venturing into a new era of innovative hunter
education that targets specific training needs in order to help
hunters improve their knowledge and skills."
To access the bear identification computer training program, go to
fwp.state.mt.us/bearid. For more information or to comment on this
new training approach, contact Thomas Baumeister at 406-444-4046 or
by email: tbaumeister@state.mt.us.
Uploaded: 2/3/2001
Uploaded: 2/3/2001