What is Human-Bear Conflict and How Can I Help?
We have all seen social media posts of bears happily entering communities to splash around in pools, jump on trampolines, or even displaying their curiosity by climbing onto people’s porches or decks. Of course, seeing bears being cute and curious warms the heart, but we must ask ourselves: is supporting such behavior in the best interest of the bear?
You may love seeing bears on your property or in your neighborhood, but not all your neighbors feel the same. More importantly, by not being “Cleaned Up” – removing the attractants that might invite bears – bears learn to search for food in human communities and develop bad habits that might get them into serious trouble. When bears learn these bad habits the risk of human-bear conflicts greatly increases.
By nature, we may be led to believe human-bear conflicts are defined by a bear attack or sign of aggression. However, in reality, a conflict can be considered any action taken by a bear that community members or property owners do not like. These bear actions could include tipping over trash cans, breaking into cars when people leave the windows down with food inside, damaging residential or commercial properties in the search of food, wandering through farms or properties where the owners are frightened for their livestock or pets, or even when an innocent, unassuming bear accidently startles someone coming out of their house.
As a result, authorities in your communities and around the country are taking these conflicts seriously by tagging these bears as “trouble bears” on their first strike (i.e. bears learning bad habits by people not taking responsibility to clean up bears). Then you might ask, “What happens when a bear gets a second or third strike?”. Well, after strikes two or three, the best-case scenario is the bear is tranquilized and relocated to an entirely different territory in which it does not know – or even worse, and far too often, authorities have moved to a simpler solution: euthanization of “trouble” bears.
As bear lovers, we might think bears should not be punished for simply wandering into those communities that are expanding into the bears’ natural habitats. As an organization, we whole-heartedly agree. However, living in bear territories creates an endless debate of how to manage bears and their behaviors.
As a nonprofit dedicated to bears, we are constantly striving to fight for bears and now more than ever we want to invite you to play a role in preventing bears from learning bad habits and from becoming what authorities label as “trouble” bears.
How Can I Help Prevent Human-Bear Conflicts?
You might ask, “What role can I play in protecting bears?”. Well, quite honestly, each one of us can absolutely play an important role in preventing bears from developing bad habits. For starters, when seeing a bear in the wild or visiting an area where bears live, we each need to keep a safe distance and properly store our food and trash. Storing food and trash in bear safe boxes when camping and securing food sources in your vehicle with the windows up when out for a hike will make a difference in deterring bears from being curious and making a mistake. And, above all else, please, please do not intentionally feed the wildlife!
If bears are known to spend time near your property or home, then we highly encourage you to be proactive in taking steps to become truly bear-friendly. Taking steps to become bear-friendly means removing attractants that might invite bears, even if a bear has not yet visited your neighborhood. Bears are constantly searching for food sources and being proactive to safeguard your property will help to prevent bears from learning to associate food with humans and your efforts will help to save bears.
For the Love of Bears is here to help educate, promote, and encourage us all to take steps to protect bears in the ways we each are able – and in turn, to ensure peaceful coexistence with bears and to keep our neighborhoods safe. So, let’s work together and do our part by committing to being “Cleaned Up For the Love of Bears”!
Learn more about how YOU can protect your local bears by becoming “Cleaned Up For the Love of Bears” certified today!