Students at Kodiak High School in Kodiak, Alaska, developed a bear-resistant dumpster to help combat the increasing problem of human-bear interactions. The project, introduced by Nate Svoboda, a wildlife biologist from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, was inspired by the rising frequency of human-bear encounters on Kodiak Island.
The dumpster was built with a budget of just $1,000 with the goal of withstanding an attack from a Kodiak bear, the largest subspecies of brown bears that weigh up to 1,500 pounds. While they weren’t able to put it to the test against one of these massive animals, they were able to test it on the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center‘s three brown bears: JB, Patron, and Hugo.
The test required that the dumpster hold off the strength of brown bears for one hour, filled with snacks inside to tempt the animal’s curiosity. The dumpster was unfortunately unable to survive the test, but it put up a very solid fight. Cheers to the Kodiak High School students for their hard work!