Bear hit by car expected to recover
By Associated Press
WASHOE VALLEY — Officials say a female bear was struck by a car in Interstate 580 in Washoe Valley but is expected to recover from its injuries.
A driver was exiting the highway on Tuesday when the car hit a bear. Officials say the bear suffered some road rash and swelling, but should be fine.
Members of the Nevada Highway Patrol, Truckee Meadows Fire Protection District and Nevada Department of Wildlife responded to move the bear to safety.
The sow was traveling with two cubs. All three bears were sedated and wildlife officials say they expect to release them into the wild on Thursday after tagging the cubs.
Troopers say no charges will be filed against the driver, who was not injured.
This story is a perfect example proving that the Nevada Bear Hunt is an utter failure and the supposed goals that were fabricated to make the argument to persuade people to be in favor of the hunt were just that, fabricated. Mainly the argument that a bear hunt would vastly decrease the incidence of human/bear conflicts. Even NDOW admits that 95% of the cause of human/bear conflicts were directly associated to food sources and attractants. All the bear hunt is doing is pushing non urbanized bears out of rural areas and sending them into the urban environments that border rural bear habitat. Had these bears not been most probably trying to escape hunters they would never have been crossing the highway in Washoe Valley.
After posting my above statement I came across this article about the aftermath of the state backed Florida bear slaughter that took place this last weekend. It totally plays out my suggestion that rural bears will try and escape hunters by moving into urban areas for safety.
http://www.abc-7.com/story/30369063/swfl-residents-bears-more-active-after-statewide-hunt
I think it was George Bush’s fault. He is a well known bear hunter.
I had six bears around my cabin at the same time
last week. No trash or food around to attract them.
I have never seen them travel in a group before. My neighbor claims I missed three bears when I was taking pictures. They claim to have seen nine bears.
The current all bears good all people bad plan is a FAILURE!!
Last time I checked and I could be wrong but every state (over 40?) with bears has as part of their management program a bear hunt. If that is correct is it possible to learn which ones are effective, the criteria for needing a hunt or not. Which ones have not been successful and why.
Carl:
The empirical evidence is pretty clear in the peer review literature, sport hunting bears does not lessen conflicts. There are plenty of examples of conflicts increasing with a decreasing bear population. The best predictor of changes in conflicts (increases, decreases or no change) is abundance, diversity and distribution of food resources. More simply put, poor food years more conflicts good food years fewer conflicts – the size of the bear population is a poor predictor of changes in conflict.
Essentially, we do not manage bears or other predators by the sport hunt, but for it. Sport hunting predators is simply a recreational activity for a few.
Rick
Rick you make an excellent point. I would also like to address those that feel hunts like these pay for wildlife management and conservation programs because that is simply not true. Nationwide 94% of all the money used to cover wildlife management and conservation programs is basically paid for by non hunting taxpayers. NDOW collected $55,000 in hunt fees over two years (2013 and 2014) but spent $200,000 in the first year of the bear hunt alone. And in last years hunt (2014) 28% of the bears killed in the hunt had been relocated specifically into the hunt zones. Yet an 18 month old female, who would be far too small to be considered a “trophy” bear, was trapped by NDOW off of Kingsbury Grade earlier this summer with no previous strikes, was deemed a dangerous bear, and then euthanized all because she walked into a garage left open by the homeowner. Coincidence? I think not!
Sunriser-where is your cabin, next to Taylor Creek where the bears are looking for fish ?
Blame hunters for a bear getting hit by a car. What a joke!
My cabin is located at the Y. I think the bears travel along the creek that runs behind the post office. Some times they sleep in the large trees behind my cabin too.
Kind of ironic that many people went to Taylor Creek that afternoon to look for bears. They were all in my neighborhood at that time.