Opinion: Expect increase in bear activity
By Carl Lackey
As autumn begins, the appetite of the Sierra Nevada black bear takes a dramatic swing upward. Motivated by signals from nature known as zeitgebers, the bears spectacularly increase their daily caloric intake from 3,000 calories per day to upward of 25,000 calories per day.
This physiological wonder is known as hyperphagia. Nature’s dinner bell is ringing.
Hyperphagia is a period where bears eat as much as they possibly can so they can put on as much fat as possible to carry them through winter hibernation. Nothing much gets in the bear’s way when they are this hungry.
Armed with that big appetite and motivated by zeitgebers like decreased daily sunlight and cooler morning temperatures, the bears will search far and wide in the hunt for food. Those 25,000 calories are the human equivalent of eating about 50 cheeseburgers per day over the next couple of months.
The moon is at or nearly full for the rest of September and the first days of October. They will eat up to 20 hours per day during a full moon period as they pile on the fat. People living in bear country should not be tempting these already hungry bears with easy access to garbage, bird feeders, bowls of pet food or ripened fruit falling from trees.
Areas most at risk of attracting bears by granting access to garbage and other attractants are the Lake Tahoe Basin, west Carson City and the foothill areas of Douglas and Washoe counties.
Nevada has had four dry winters in a row and the natural foods that the bears desire are not in abundance in the wild lands. Plants that create nuts and berries like manzanita, squirrel tail, snowbush, desert peach and rosehips are highly desired but not always abundant in dry years. It will be a busy next few weeks in bear country.
People needing to report nuisance bear activity can call the NDOW’s Bear Hotline telephone number at 775.688.2327. For information on living with bears persons can go online and find the ”Bear Logic” page.
Carl Lackey is a biologist with the Nevada Division of Wildlife.
Carl Lackey I want to thank you for sharing some basic black bear physiology. I realize that it must be hard for you to find the time to spend on educating the public, especially when your’s and NDOW’s priority seems to be trapping a bear and then just maybe (or not) explaining to a homeowner that the majority of the behavior of what you would call a “nuisance” bear is due to the irresponsible behavior of the homeowner that asked for the trap to be placed.
Since the gist of your letter is about feeding and basic physiology of black bears and how they relate to each other let me elaborate on your points. Although you talk about four years of drought being the main ingredient for the increased bear activity in and around the developed areas of the Tahoe Basin, I would have to disagree. Anyone who has spent anytime in the forest or back-country this year realizes that the monsoonal rains we saw in the early summer actually created a bumper crop of undergrowth, grasses and wildflowers. But why aren’t the bears scampering back into the mountains and taking advantage of this cornucopia? Let me tell you why. These bears have become quite habituated at dining on the high caloric trash we humans provide them on a regular/daily basis. Now let me tie in the black bear physiology part of my comment. Generally here in the west black bears would be giving birth to one or two cubs, but over the last few years three cubs per sow has been the norm and there are even reports of a sow on the southwest shore with four cubs. Why is this happening? Readily available food sources. Trash. A black bear sow is fertilized by one, or even multiple sometimes, black bear boars in early summer. That sow doesn’t drop those fertilized eggs into her ovaries until early/mid fall. In cases of inhospitable environmental conditions, generally lack of food, that sow’s body can self abort some or all of her eggs. It’s a built in natural fail safe system to keep the population within a given environment in check. Well, thanks to The Black Bear Buffet we are providing this natural selection process is completely out of whack! We don’t have problem/nuisance bears, we have problem/nuisance human beings not taking responsibility for their actions.
For those of you that want to be part of the solution to this human problem please give us a call at The Bear League at 530-525-7297. We offer a wide variety of educational materials and have volunteers that would be more than happy to come to your property if invited and help you create a workable plan that will make you and your home part of that solution I speak of.
Such sage advice from a man (I shutter to use that word)who spends his days capturing bears, sepperating the mommas from their cubs, relocating bears to hunt zones and killing bears. How you got the degree in biology is beyond any comprehension. You do not protect our local bears, you murder them. You should be charged with animal cruelty for taking the momma bear from her cub. And now a bear has drowned in Dayton due to NDOW. Please do not call NDOW when you see a bear. They dont have any intrest in attacking humans. Give them room to escape. Look up your trash. A fed bear is a dead bear, especially when Carl Lackey is trolling the neighborhood!
Here we go again, People are dumb , What Mr Lackey says ,We just do not understand about Bears, We already know about Garbage ,We already know what happens,This article,Is saying we do not know how to relate about what to do,Then there is someone writing about Killing and drowning, I just dont get it,Where does it say anything about fines for people who do not do right ? I see no answers really ,Call NDOW, Then call Bear League ,This Madness is way out of control, I see it as a warning to all, Its almost time for hunting ,and when cubs die,and mama is captured ,Its time for solutions to the problem,We all care about the Bears and cubs,But this is a cowards way out to not protect our Bears,Madness is a 2 way street ,Lets get it solved ,We want answers ,Why kill the bears, why take mama Bear away from cub ,? Why did a bear drown ? Why did you let the Bear drown if you knew the area and the Bear was going to get drowsy ? Something is not right The only thing I can think of is Why does this happen ? No solutions ,Only problems .Stop the Madness,and just let nature take its course,and let Bears be bears,WHY is IT so hard to do this?NO ANSWERS , JUST PROBLEMS ,STOP THE MADNESS BEAR LEAGUE ,AND NDOW ,We already know you work together. Lets be honest and work with all of us ,not just you and him and them, or anybody that sees a bear is to call this ,or that, Work together,and it can be better . for all of us,Stop the MADNESS.
Thanks Toogee- Great info.
Carl is correct- The bears are out and moving around right now as I see the evidence on a place I’ve named “Bear Ridge”. (not in your area, Carl, and I’ll never tell where it is, anyway) The bears use this spot to claw/mark the trees. People think I’m wrong when I say they eat up to 35,000 calories a day at this time of year. They are supposed to. The scat they are leaving is almost completely berries that don’t look like they’ve even broken down. How they get enough food to hibernate is beyond me.
If you’re out in the wilderness- make some noise- sing a song- but be sure to let the bears know you are there and they WILL stay away from you.
Dear Lackey (in the most common sense). i suggest you dress as a wandering bear. i’ll call NDOW and we’ll see if you get killed or transplanted safely. are you willing to trust barney, gomer and goober(your wildlife associates)? i think not!
Togee, it’s clear that you’re passionate and sincere about your concern for bears. But please, before commenting, research (especially before writing opinion pieces).
Even the bear league has a recent post about the drought causing starvation: “The drought along with habitat destruction is causing starvation for our wildlife.” Human/bear conflict increases and decreases according to environmental conditions. If you take even a minimum of time researching this you’ll confirm it. Most bears prefer wild food when it’s available, but when it’s not, they’ll take the risks associated with acquiring human food. So yes, the “bear buffet” is the core problem, but the increased activity is drought related. Carl Lackey has been pointing to human trash as the primary cause of “conflict” for decades.
Once your group starts sticking to facts and stops the personal attacks you might get somewhere. Members of the public, including the bear league/the wall of shame, aren’t accountable to any higher authority so you can write anything, call yourself an authority, whatever, but there’s no one fact-checking and correcting before publishing. Ndow, on the other hand, is accountable to the governor and the legislature and held to a higher standard. So if you all don’t get your facts straight, your credibility is nil.
As someone who between work and recreation spends 7 days a week in the forest, I would wholeheartedly agree with the assessment on wildlife food sources this year put forth by Toogie.
As the article says: “Plants that create nuts and berries like manzanita, squirrel tail, snowbush, desert peach and rosehips are highly desired but not always abundant in dry years.” If Togee is correct in his assessment, then “conflict” will be minimal. If wildland foods are indeed reduced due to drought, there will be an increase.
However, according to many years of research (which you can easily look up), you won’t have a year with high rates of human/bear conflict when wild foods are abundant. The article is a straightforward assessment of the facts and meant to raise awareness. There’s really no basis on which to argue with it or “disagree” with any of the points made.
I hope people get smart about their trash and how it attracts bears who eat their trash. It’s a health hazard for your neighborhood! Bears can do property damage, broken fences, broken car windows and houses broken into, then you have a hungry bear in your house!
Keep bear aware and keep any thing a bear would eat away from the bears AND BEARS WILL EAT ABOUT ANY THING!
DO NOT KILL THE BEARS.Live with them. OLS
See Myth#4
http://www.bearsmart.com/about-bears/dispelling-myths/
CSB since you brought up Bear Smart myths, you and Carl Lackey can try these on for size as they seem to be pertinent to Mr Lackey and NDOW’s message and actions:
Myth #1: Bears are unpredictable
Fact: Bears use body language and vocalizations to show their intentions. Learning about bear behaviour can be beneficial to people who live or recreate in bear country.
Myth #9: Bears that wander into inhabited areas such as campsites, rural towns or cottage communities are dangerous
Fact: It is nearly impossible for a bear to make its daily excursions without walking through someone’s private property. Bears may travel hundreds of kilometres in their search for food. If you have stored your food and garbage properly, the bear will likely move on. Remember, problem bears aren’t born, they’re created through mismanagement of human food and garbage. If bears are hanging around, something is attracting them. Removing the attraction will usually solve the problem.
Myth #10: Shooting or relocating a ‘nuisance’ bear will solve the problem
Fact: Removing the bear and not the attractant will only create an opportunity for another bear to move in, creating a vicious cycle of conflict and killing.
Why is it that California can co-exist with bears without killing them and Nevada cant? Yes, bears are cute, however, South Shore residents seem to have an appreciation for the bears as well as a deep respect for them. We don’t feel the need to exterminate them from our town (their forests). NDOW needs to be held to a higher standard since their first call to action is to kill, unless the media or the Bear League is there watching them. NDOW needs to be investigated by someone higher up on the food chain. They are out of control. There are natural food sources for the bears, but they have learned through human error that there is an easier way to get food. Why cant there be a seed planting day higher up in the mountains for the bears? We have special days were people get together and plant sugar pines. Of course we are going to see more bears in the next couple of months. They are in a quest to bulk up before hibernation. If they do not take in 25,000 calories a day, the bears and any cubs they have will not be able to survive hibernation. The momma will not be able to produce enough milk and the cubs will die of starvation before momma even wakes up. People need to be held accountable for leaving out trash. Start giving big fines to the repeat offenders who leave trash readily available to the bears. If they leave their front door open and a bear wanders by and is then killed by NDOW for it, charge the person any fees involved in the bear removal. (In the case on Kingsbury, the door was left open, NDOW was called, bear was killed) The bears were here first, we all know that there is a difference between living in the city, country, mountains etc. The bears should not be killed because humans are too lazy to put their trash away properly. Bears have to walk through golf courses, fields, high schools and more to get to the forests they live in. Funny that a “biologist” does not know the behaviors of black bears. I have learned the behaviors since living here. I know to give them space, yell and make noise to scare them off, pack up my trash. I know that when cornered they react certain ways, I know if you don’t corner them, they aren’t forced to act certain ways. NDOW and Carl Lackey have a horrible reputation for being kill happy monsters. The way most locals feel about them is more of a danger than all of the bears they have murdered this year combined. I thought biologists were supposed to respect, study and preserve wildlife. Please do NOT call NDOW when you spot a bear, you will just be contributing to another bear death. A fed bear is a dead bear. A Nevada bear is a dead bear. #bearlivesmatter