Nils Pedersen
Nils Pedersen is the Wildlife K-9 Director of the Wind River Bear Institute. He grew up with sled dogs in Fairbanks, Alaska and understood the utility of working dogs for bear deterrence at a young age because of a photo that his grandpa showed him of one of his Greenland Husky dogs chasing a young polar bear away from camp. Pedersen began working with the WRBI in 2011 as the trainer and handler of “Soledad”. Together they have worked to address human-bear conflict issues with all three species of North American bear: brown, black, and polar bear. Pedersen completed a M.Sc. degree in Wildlife Biology and Conservation from the University of Alaska Fairbanks in 2019. His research focused on human-grizzly and polar bear conflict in the North Slope oilfields of Alaska.
