Human+Interactions

The bear’s keen sense of smell leads it to nuts and berries, but the animal is also enticed by human food left on a picnic table or offered from an outstretched hand. Feeding bears or allowing them access to human food causes a number of problems:

• It changes the bear's wild behavior and causes them to lose their instinctive fear of humans. This lack of fear causes panhandler or "nuisance" bears to be more unpredictable and dangerous when they encounter humans.

• At their best, panhandler bears perform tricks to obtain food. At their worst, they damage property and injure people. In 1999, 116 bear-related incidents were recorded and extensive property damage occurred.

• It transforms wild and healthy bears into habitual beggars. Studies have shown that panhandler bears never live as long as wild bears. Many are hit by cars and become easy targets for poachers. Beggar bears may die from ingesting food packaging. Many bears have died a slow and agonizing death from eating plastics and other materials.

Habitual panhandler bears must be aversive conditioned or destroyed. If the bears are managed soon after they start to lose their wild behavior, they have a better chance of returning to natural food foraging behavior. Until 1991, the park’s management policy centered on live trapping problem bears and relocating them away from developed areas. Frequently, they returned and had to be trapped repeatedly or removed from the park entirely.
 * Bear Management**

Now wildlife managers use proactive aversive conditioning that involves capturing, working-up, and releasing bears back into the same area. The work-up involves tranquilizing the animal and performing a safe medical examination on the bear. While the procedure is harmless to the bear, it is unpleasant and re-instills a fear of humans. This approach allows bears to remain in their home range, but they shy away from the developed areas.

In addition, bear-proof garbage cans have been replaced with larger bear-proof dumpsters. Volunteers and park staff diligently patrol the busiest picnic areas in the evenings to watch for potential problem bears and to clean up any trash that has been left out. Public education and law enforcement efforts have also been stepped up. So far the results are encouraging and the number of problem bears has been reduced. ( [] )