Care for Bers Education Programme Guidelines for Indian Bear Education Programmes Zoo Outreach Organisation & ALERTIS - fund for bear and nature conservation Himalayan black bear Himalayan brown bear Sloth bear Sun Bear Care for Bers Education Programme Care for Bers Education Programme Guidelines for conducting an Indian Bear Education Programme Zoo Outreach Organisation & ALERTIS - fund for bear and nature conservation Guidelines, packet items, and t-shirts Designed, written and compiled by Education Team of Zoo Outreach Organisation Graphics by Sonali Lahiri Typesetting, printing and distribution by Printing unit of Zoo Outreach Organisation Care for Bers Education Programme ALERTIS - Fund for bear and nature conservation All over the world, bears are mistreated and killed for money or the entertainment of people. Furthermore, people are a threat to the bear’s natural habitat and the bear is threatened with extinction. In order to act against all this, Alertis (before: International Bear Foundation) was established in 1993 on the initiative of Ouwehand Zoo in Rhenen, the Netherlands. From september 2002 IBF started a collaboration with Ouwehand Conservation Fund. International Bear Foundation has therefore changed its name into Alertis - fund for bear and nature conservation. Alertis is engaged with the conservation of the eight bear species and of the other animal species living in the same habitat. Zoo Outreach Organisation Zoo Outreach Organisation (ZOO) is a positive and constructive, sensible and scientific conservation, research, education and (wildlife) welfare organisation. ZOO is based in India but covers projects throughout South Asia and occasionally South East Asia. ZOO supplies educational materials to zoological gardens and conservation organizations to conduct programmes for school children and other zoo visitors on various aspects of species and environmental conservation. ZOO collaborates with zoos all over the world to provide technical materials to help zoos in South Asia solve some of their problems and achieve their objectives of conservation, research and education. ZOO was established in Mysore in 1985 and now has a working office in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu since 1987. ZOO is the host of the Asian Regional Network of International Zoo Educator (Association), representing I.Z.E. throughout South Asia. ZOO’s Project with Alertis - Fund for bear and nature conservation 1. Produce simple educational materials for zoos to use in education campaigns about bears 2. build a data base of current atrocities (and near atrocities) involving bears in India using newspaper and magazine clippings and informal reports. 3. to copy and circulate appropriate articles from the bear books supplied by ALERTIS to bear holding zoos Care for Bers Education Programme Contents Introduction 1 Developing a programme around a species or event 3 Getting the best help from the press 5 Background Information - Resource material Bears in general 9 Asian Black Bear 12 Sloth Bears 13 Brown Bear or Grizzly 15 Sun Bear 18 Bears - Endangered species 19 Bears in Indian zoos 23 Activities and games How many bears can fill a T-shirt 27 Survival of the fittest 28 Passing the story 29 Find your Rakhi partner 31 Just a line 32 Complete the bear 33 Complete the bear in his habitat 34 Blind bears 35 Bear race 36 Essay writing 38 Rangoli bears 39 For all ages Drawing and story 40 Memory game 41 Dancing bears 42 Debate (for older kids) 43 Care for Bers Education Programme Come and “Bear” with us ! Introduction Bears are a favourite animal with the world’s children and many adults as well. Many of us have wonderful associations with bears from cartoons, from our “teddy bear” in childhood, and from fables and stories. Bears have all the characters which make them popular animals – they are fuzzy and round; they tend to bumble around; they are not burdened with a “maneater” image (although they do cause lots of trouble to humans, both to property and to life if one is in the wrong place at the wrong time with a bear). Bears are suffering today from all the problems of wildlife and environment in general. Bears are also particularly targeted for performing, for use in traditional medicine and even for food. There is a lively trade in bears and this, along with habitat destruction and fragmentation, is starting to take its toll on the population. We have to start taking more aggressive action specifically for bears as a taxon group and to do that we need to understand – and become passionate about – their problems. Education is a way to help the general public develop awareness and passion about bears. Hence, the current programme of Zoo Outreach Organisation and the International Bear Foundation to “star” bears for this year’s wildlife week and throughout the coming years as well. This booklet contains material which is intended to help an individual or a team of people who want to educate a group or groups of school children (or even adults) about bears. The resource material in Part I can be used by anyone for any lecture or presentation to any age group, understanding that material has to be focused at the age and educational background of the target group. The activities in Part II are related to the “Bear Bag”, a packet of materials on the four Asian bears which we are distributing to zoos, NGOs, and other government institutions to help them organize an education programme for a group of school children. We have tried to include a variety of activities so that you could have some sort of interactive event with almost any age group. We of ZOO and ALERTIS hope that the individuals and institutions which receive these materials and conduct programmes will not stop with this but will go on highlighting the importance of bears as creatures adding immense biological, ecological, cultural and emotional richness to our lives. We in India are so lucky! How many countries can say they have 4 species of bear ! So, please come and “Bear” with us! We will produce more bear materials and invite you to share them with people of all ages. Care for Bers Education Programme Developing a Programme Around a Species or an Event (Taken from the ZOO ED Book, Sally Walker, Zoo Outreach Organisation, 1998) Designated programmes for a species or an event can be long term, short term or seasonal. For example, the Indian Sangai education programme was a long term programme, involving research and surveys as well as educational activities to a great variety of target groups. This extended over six years. A tiger cub naming ceremony held by the Friends of Mysore Zoo was a “one off” or short term event. The birthday of a popular animal could be held yearly. World Environment Day is held every year. Conducting programmes around species and/or events may enable a zoo to have something going on throughout the year. The following outline suggests ways of using species and events to focus your educational activities. ELEMENTS OF DEVELOPING A PROGRAMME 1. Functions Functions may include — lectures, parades, parties, ceremonies, press conferences, discussion groups, contests, competitions, special tours, slide shows (both in-house and outreach), etc. 2. Materials Posters, newsletters, brochures, packets, brochure-stickers, stickers, stamps, rubber stamps, t-shirts, calendars, postal cards, carry-bags, etc. 3. Partners Collaborate on programmes with other organisations such as Rotary Club, nature clubs, conservation organisations, climbing and adventure clubs, churches, schools, businesses. SPECIES Endangered species, particular 1. An endangered species in your zoo. 2. An endangered species not necessarily in your zoo but in India. 3. An endangered species not even in India but as a symbol in the world. Endangered species, general 1. A group of endangered animals which can highlight the destruction of a particular habitat or biome 2. The concept of endangered species/”vanishing species” 3. A “representative” group of endangered animals, i.e. a mammal, a bird, a reptile, a fish, an amphibian, an insect. Engaging/attractive species — or — the very opposite 1. An “attractive” animal that is not necessarily in trouble but can serve as a focal point to attract public attention. 2. An “attractive” young animal that has a birthday, or is being “named” etc. that can serve as a focal point. Care for Bers Education Programme 3. An unattractive or unpopular animal with a negative image but has a story to tell itself can be played upon to make a point on an environmental issue. Official / commercial animals 1. Your official, state or national animal 2. An animal that is they symbol or logo of a well-known industry of company (that might fund some programme). EVENTS Events can be global, national, state, local, in house 1. World events such as World Environment Day, World Forestry Day, etc. 2. National or state national events (do not necessarily have to be connected with wildlife or environment, i.e. Republic Day in India is a free day for children at the zoo; Mother’s Day could focus on zoo animal mothers and their babies and allow all mothers with a baby in free of charge). 3. Local events — can mean your city or your own zoo. Zoo Week, Clean-up Day in your community, Health day, etc. 4. In-house events — Zoo special events such as animal birthdays, zoo centenary, or national and international scientific meetings. Care for Bers Education Programme GETTING THE BEST HELP FROM THE PRESS Writing a Press release : Pointers for pleasing all Media 1. PROVIDE COMPLETE INFORMATION : · who · what · where · when 2. Keep the item of LOCAL interest (but you can bring in foreign contacts) 3. Keep it as short as possible (one page double spacing best). If it is too long they will edit and if they edit they will get many things WRONG 4.