Such as human trash in national parks

Feb 1, 2010 09:35 GMT  ·  By
Black bears become incredibly persistent after they taste garbage for the first time
   Black bears become incredibly persistent after they taste garbage for the first time

As the number of black bears in the US grows, largely due to protection measures taken over the past century, the chances of these animals interacting with humans increase as well. Wildlife authorities managing national parks, where this threat is most severe, turned to science to help them devise the best possible methods of keeping bears away from thrash cans, and therefore reducing the risks of violent encounters with humans. Details of the work appear in the January issue of the respected Journal of Wildlife Management, Wired reports.

Thus far, officials have successfully experimented with rubber slugs, slingshots and rocks to keep bears away, but these methods are nefarious. Scientists also add that they only help in the short-run, in the sense that they scare bears away for the moment. They say that the first thing to do is to eliminate the reason why bears come out of their usual isolation, and into human settlements. As long a garbage containers are not bear-proof, all other measures will be for nothing, the new investigation reveals. The thing is that, even if this approach is tried out now, there are still bears that have an acquired taste for the delicacies human thrash bins contain.

One of the greatest problems is the fact that people are generally reckless around bears. They often approach cubs, and feed them various food items, not knowing that doing this could mean a death sentence for the bear. Once they acquire taste for human food, the animals can become extremely persistent, and return to the same area – picnic places, camps, even cities – every single day. Eventually, once they cannot be removed from the area, they are either shot and killed, or relocated. Additionally, it only takes a single food item left exposed in a certain area near known bear habitats to attract one. Once this happens, it will return over and over again, looking for garbage.

At this point, a combination of pepper spray and throwing rocks, or firing rubber slugs, is the most common approach to removing bears from a human-occupied area. They are used especially on food-conditioned bears, that have already tasted the proverbial apple, and are now back for more. During a three-year period, researchers formerly based at the Kings Canyon park used repelling methods on 150 bears about 1,050 times. Most often, they did so on food-conditioned animals. Of the incursion instances recorded, 321 were related to bears that had never tasted human food, and these animals were the easiest to persuade to back off. Therefore, experts say, this is where efforts to keep the creatures away should begin.