Lana Ciarniello

Human-Bear Conflicts Expert Team Co-Chair

Lana has conducted research on black and grizzly bears in a number of provinces/territories throughout Canada since 1993. Her Master’s focused on reducing negative human-black bear interactions, while her doctoral research examined the effects of timber harvesting on the demography and habitat selection of grizzly bears. Her research interests focus on the interaction of humans and bears, particularly as they relate to resource extraction industries, urban expansion and the commercial bear viewing industry. Her report, Reducing human-bear conflicts: solutions through better management of non-natural foods (Ciarniello 1997) pioneered the BC Bear Smart program. Lana believes in science-based management of bears. She uses temporal and spatial modeling to seek to explain urban encroachment into bear habitat, natural food shortages, and human-bear conflicts in relation to grizzly and black bear biological requirements. Lana is the sole proprietor of Aklak Wildlife Consulting based in Campbell River, BC.