Study finding relocation of bears doesn't work

"We know that relocating doesn't work in the long run, because they seem to come right back," said Carl Lackey, a biologist with the Nevada Division of Wildlife.

"What we try to concentrate on is the aversion therapy and getting them away from humans and back into the wild," he said.

NDOW is involved with the University of Nevada, Reno in the four-year study of large carnivores and how they respond to urban encroachment on their habitat, Lackey said.

UNR doctoral candidate Jon Beckmann is conducting field studies to earn his degree. The work includes collaring of bears. One collared bear was released 55 miles from its Lake Tahoe home and is quickly finding its way back home, Lackey said.

Lackey said his office frequently gets requests from people to relocate bears moving into human habitat.

"People move into the heart of bear country, and then want us to relocate the bears," he said. "You don't move to the ocean and complain about the saltwater."

Recent bear activity has been reported around homes in Spring Valley between Gardnerville and Topaz Lake, which he says is "smack dab in the middle of bear habitat."

"These bears get pushed around," he said. "Once they get hooked on eating garbage - which is how they usually start - it is hard to get them to go back into the wild to eat, even though there's plenty of wild food like plants, berries, grass, shrubs, insects, carrion and small mammals out there right now."

It was the garbage that apparently prompted a black bear last month to bust into the home of Margaret and Irv Becker in the Spring Valley area. The bear clawed its way through a screen window.

"It think it smelled the cantaloupe we had for breakfast, because it pulled the compactor out of the wall and dumped it," said Mrs. Becker, 71. "Then, it took and ate all the bananas we had on the counter, peels and all."

Irv Becker, 76, said he was surprised the bear didn't do more damage.

"I got up at 4:30 ... and here was the big, heavy trash compactor pulled out of the wall and on the floor, on its side, with all the trash lying there," he said. "I grabbed my shotgun and went from room to room, but didn't see anything."

While Lackey says it is possible to live in harmony with bears, he is hesitant because black bears can be predatory and dangerous.

"This is the part that scares me," he said. "I would rather do almost anything than have to put down a bear, but I would also much rather deal with putting down a bear occasionally than have to deal with a human attack."

Lackey said a wild bear rarely makes a leap right into being a garbage bear.

"It is part learned behavior, and then it becomes habit," he said. "Once they get the taste for human food, it's tough to get them to stop. Even if we successfully move them, or even if we have to euthanize a bear - it's only a matter of time before more bears come in if they're still allowed access to garbage.

"On the California side of Lake Tahoe, it is required by county ordinance that people use these bear-proof containers. If we could get that requirement everywhere in bear country, we'd be way ahead of the game."

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