Grizzly, meet Ozzy.
Wildlife managers in western states are buzzing grizzlies bears using drones and even blaring heavy metal tunes to scare away the bears expand across Montana’s northern plains.
Sometimes, the noise of the drone’s propellers is enough to push the apex predators away from ranches, grain bins and other potential trouble spots, according to Cowboy State Daily.
Other times, it takes a more human sound — such as talking or even yelling at the animals through drone-mounted speakers — to scare them off, said Dave Kemp, the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Conrad-area grizzly bear management specialist.
“We need to associate that drone activity with human activity, so the bear can make the connection: ‘This drone means people, and I don’t want to have anything to do with it,’” Kemp told the outlet.
Although the hazing tactics have mostly kept Montana’s prairie grizzlies from running into people, they’re not always successful.
The bears are repopulating the area, and have moved all the way into the Missouri Breaks region, the newspaper said.
And they’re not always receptive to managers’ efforts — as one May incident showed.
That time, a black bear in Golden, Colorado, climbed a tree and didn’t budge, even when wildlife agents and local cops sent a drone to hover above it blaring Black Sabbath’s legendary metal anthem “Iron Man.”
But that head-banging bruin aside, the drones have been a bit of a godsend, Kemp said.
The machines help wildlife managers track the bears’ locations without putting humans in harm’s way, he said.
They can also outfit the drones with equipment that picks up the bear’s heat signature, thereby helping workers find hidden grizzlies already hunkered down in the thick brush, the newspaper said.
Montana’s not the only state trying to haze the bears into staying away from people — neighboring Wyoming has also taken up the mantle.
“We use drones for myriad applications in wildlife, including for grizzly bears,” Dan Thompson, the state’s Game and Fish Large Carnivore Specialist, told Cowboy State Daily.
“Generally speaking, they are most useful from a reconnaissance standpoint to determine where a bear is or is not,” he continued.
“Much is employed for the sake of human safety, the public and our crew, which does include hazing.”
The bears might eventually get used to this, Kemp and Thompson told the outlet, similar to how reintroduced wolves no longer fear the flashing lights that once kept them off certain properties.
And because grizzlies are pretty sharp, Thompson said the animals might acclimate when they realize the drones pose no actual danger.
Kemp said that’s why he tries to switch up the tactics every now and again.
“There’s always a thought in the back of my mind to not habituate a bear when I’m trying to haze it to a particular method,” he said.
People can also fire rubber shotgun slugs or cracker shells to scare the big beasts off.
But Kemp said he generally avoids hazing unless it’s absolutely necessary — they can coexist with people, as long as they stay away from each other.
Sometimes, of course, it’s unavoidable.
“If there is a bear that’s in somebody’s shelter belt, 10 yards from their house, where they have to walk past it every day to get to their pickup, we can’t accept that,” he said.
“That kind of behavior is not something we can tolerate, because if we do, we’re going to lose tolerance for grizzly bears.”
