Hunger is Driving Montana's Bears to New Places
October 8, 2007
Montana's bears are appearing in new places and seeking out new sources of food after an extremely dry summer and shortened berry season. Recent callers to Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks offices around the state are reporting numerous signs of bears in rural and urban areas. Callers from towns large and small are reporting bear sightings: under an apple tree in a residential area, a bear eating chokecherries growing in a neighbor's yard, signs of bear scat with sunflower seeds in it.
When bears have to scramble to find food, they are likely to discover undesirable—to-us new locations to feed, including urban areas and outlying businesses that may unintentionally offer grain, fruit from domestic apple and plum trees, bird feeders, pet food, and garbage. These attractants easily lead bears into repeated conflicts with humans — and to their deaths if the bear's behavior becomes a threat to human safety.
Shocking as it sounds, simple foods — sunflower seeds in a bird feeder, orchard apples — kill bears every year in Montana. Why? Because once a bear finds these easy sources of food they are quickly conditioned to turn to them again, rather than the sometimes harder to gather natural bear foods such as ants, grubs, and wild chokecherries. A bear that seeks human foods is certain to come into conflict eventually with people.
Capturing and removing bears to a new area is notoriously ineffective because bears are territorial and naturally try to return to their home ranges. It is possible, but time consuming and expensive, to retrain bears to eat natural bear foods by using specially trained Karelian bear dogs, cracker shells and bean bag rounds to convince them to move on. However, the effort is wasted if a bear returns and residents failed to eliminate the bear attractants.
The most effective way to save the lives of individual Montana bears and prevent conflicts between humans and bears is to eliminate a bear's access to human foods or garbage in the first place. It is that simple, and that difficult. Common bear attractants include:
> barbeque grills,
> pet foods left outdoors,
> vehicles with food in them,
> livestock feed,
> human garbage,
> birdfeeder seed,
> compost piles,
> unharvested orchard and garden produce.
For details on how to avoid attracting bears to your residence this fall, and for an assessment of how bear aware you are, visit the Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks Be Bear Aware page.
Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks
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