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Welcome to CoveBear.com! Read About How Bears Can Be Pests
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Black Bear Management: Pests |
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NUISANCE BEARS
Copyright National Park Service, Yellowstone National Park, Photographer Robinson
A nuisance animal is wild. A nuisance animal is one that is doing something that people don't want it to do, or an animal that is in what people to determine to be the wrong place. It is causing damage to property or crops, it is coming too close for the people to feel safe. It may not show fear of people or loud noises. When wild animals come in close to a people area several times, and nothing happens, they may become habituated animals, that is they become accustomed to being around people because nothing bad happens to them, and they keep coming back. A habituated animal may simply stare at you when you clap your hands, and refuse to leave. When a wild animal becomes habituated it frequently becomes a nuisance.
Copyright National Park Service National Historic Photograph Collection Photographer Jack Boucher Yellowstone National Park, 1958 Used with Permission
Nuisance bears are the main ones that stir up the most trouble and the most press. If bears are in the woods where they belong and not bothering anyone, they are not being a nuisance to people. The level of "nuisance" that a bear is, can be determined by what he is doing, and by the people watching him. Sometimes a bear will enter a yard, climb a tree and go to sleep, passing through people territory on his wanderings. He may be spotted in the daytime. The wildlife officer in charge may allow the bear to finish his nap, climb down from the tree, and quietly leave the area. He feels that the bear was not threatening anyone. Another wildlife officer watching this bear may feel that the fact that the bear is in someone's yard at all, is reason enough to label him a potential threat, and they may dart the bear and move him back to the woods, or they may kill him. Judgments about the level of nuisance a bear may be are made on the spot, carry a lot of responsibility, and can have severe consequences for both people and bears. For this reason, wildlife officers try to understand nuisance bears, and learn from each other what to do in a nuisance bear situation. They want to make the right decision, and they want for people to be safe.
If the wildlife officer on the scene of a nuisance bear makes the wrong decision, it could be catastrophic. If he decides to dart the bear in a tree, the bear may fall out of the tree and die or have to be killed. This can be very upsetting to the people watching and lethal to the bear. If the officer leaves the bear alone, and the bear comes down and hurts a person, the officer would be blamed for not acting faster. On-the-spot assessment and fast decisions are difficult, and the right choice is not always made.
Copyright National Park Service Yellowstone National Park, Roadside Black Bears, Photographer Miller, 1962 Used with Permission
What can we do to help that wildlife officer who will have the burden of deciding a bear's fate? People can do things that may prevent a bear from becoming a nuisance. In bear territory we can:
Black Bear Breaks Into Car for Food at Clingman's Dome Park Lot Great Smoky Mountains National Park 1999 Video on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBnGe9HDGBI
USE BEAR-PROOF AND CRITTER-PROOF CONTAINERS OUTSIDE!
If you live in or near bear country, consider using bear-proof containers outside, to keep bears out of human foods and garbage, and this will help bears not become nuisance bears. They will live longer!
We have found these bear-proof containers on the internet (but we do not endorse products):
"Bearier Bins" from Dawg, Inc. - Terryville, Connecticut http://www.dawginc.com/critter-can/bear_container.php
"Critter Can" description from Bear Education And Resource Group at http://www.savenjbears.com/CritterCanHardware.pdf
"Bear Bins" from Bear Necessities Waste and Food Storage at
BearGuard - Tahoe City, California
"BearSaver" by Bear Saver - Ontario, California
Contact them or others, but do get bear-proof containers if you live in bear country.
According to the Get Bear Smart Society in British Columbia, "an average of 905 black bears and 49 grizzlies" are killed every year because they were determined by wildlife officers to be nuisance animals. This group also says that putting up electric fencing around BC landfills would help that situation.
Ideas about what to do about nuisance bears are changing. In 2006 and beyond, we will see more and more non-lethal solutions to nuisance bear situations, when possible. Non-lethal solutions are actions taken by people that do not involve killing the nuisance bear. They involve using loud noises, bear dogs to chase the bear, rubber bullets, pepper spray, and other aversive training that teaches the bear he should leave the area. These actions are aimed at scaring the bear away to wilder areas, away from people, with the hope he will not return.
Great ideas have been born in recent years, and people have vastly improved education about bear bear safety and nuisance bear situations. Nuisance bear education is aggressive and nuisance bear research is on-going. Many types of nuisance bear management are being studied, taught, and researched:
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