The 28th International Association for Bear Research and Management (IBA) was held in Edmonton (Alberta, Canada) 15-20 September this year. Around 350 people attended and not only learned and shared information, but also had fun reconnecting and meeting colleagues. So far, the IBA conferences were held in 17 countries, and everyone’s been different, but all have been great in their own way and always highly appreciated among members. The main theme of the conference was “Co-existing with Bears on Dynamic Landscapes”. The sessions tackled management, habitat, human-bear conflicts and coexistence, movement ecology, population estimations, behaviour and physiology and issues related to bears in captivity. The conference started with a fantastic session where representatives from various countries presented on spiritual and cultural perspectives on bears and their conservation, and traditions and relationships between bears and indigenous communities. Our colleague, Agnieszka Sergiel, attended the conference and presented our recent works on brown bear adrenal glands and the results of the study on trace elements and endocrine status of brown bears based on blood samples. For more details on the conference program please see the conference website https://conference.bearbiology.org and for more about IBA and its works here www.bearbiology.org
