9/13/2000 Colorado Division of Wildlife
On many of the Division of Wildlife's trucks driven by district
wildlife managers and biologists, there's a bumper sticker with a
succinct, yet important message, "A fed bear is a dead bear."
Feeding bears, whether intentionally or inadvertently, teaches
bears that people are a ready source of food, particularly when supplies
of berries, acorns and other natural food are in low supply.
"Bears are intelligent critters that can live for more than 20
years, and once they learn to associate people with food, they won't
forget," said Tom Beck a Division research biologist who has
studied black bears extensively. "The next time there is a failure
of the beny or acorn crop, bears will return to the same place where
they've found human food in the past," Beck explained.
"Feeding bears that have already been eating food provided by
people only reinforces bad behavior," he said.
In addition, feeding big game - which includes black bear - is
illegal in Colorado. A person or people who are guilty of feeding big
game can be subject to a fine.
While habitat conditions are good in many areas of the state, poor
conditions along Colorado's northern Front Range, around Grand Junction
and in portions of Pitkin, Eagle and Summit counties have resulted in
suggestions from some local residents that the Division should begin a
feeding program. The Division has received dozens of calls from
homeowners in those areas who have had bears feeding near their homes.
In some cases, bears have entered homes in search of food they smell
wafting from open windows and doors.
In nearly all cases, the bears have learned to associate people with
food because they've found trash, pet food, bird feeders, livestock feed
and other edibles lying around homes or inside garages and sheds. John
Ellenberger, the Division's big game coordinator, said feeding would
only increase problems.
"We don't want to habituate bears to food provided by
people," Ellenberger emphasized. "Bears are coming to people
for food because of the dry conditions and a freeze in some areas that
killed blossoms on beny bushes and oak brush in the mid-elevation shrub
habitat where they feed. We're having problems because people have built
homes right in the middle of the brush habitat that bears depend on and
some have left food out that bears have become accustomed
to."
Both biologists emphasized that efforts to feed bears would also be
ineffective.
"It wouldn't do any good to put food up in higher elevations
away from people because bears normally feed at lower elevations this
time of year where the berries and acorns are," Beck said. In good
habitat years, bears are satisfied with their natural forage. When the
habitat is in poor shape, bears are attracted to human food in and
around homes and cabins scattered through the very same habitat.
Feeding would not be practical for a logistical standpoint either,
Ellenberger said. "Even in the best bear habitat we have, the
density of bears is only about one per square mile compared to 50 to 100
deer per square mile in top habitat. Because of the low density, feeding
stations wouldn't work."
And only a small percentage of bears will die this winter during
hibernation because of the poor forage. Some young animals may not
survive the winter. But adult bears, including sows that produce young,
will make it through the winter.
'This is part of a natural cycle that has always occurred with
bears," Ellenberger said. "In good habitat years, more young
animals survive and in poor years, some of the young will not make it.
"That's how nature works in a natural setting."
Feeding bears could effectively turn Colorado's wild lands into
wildlife parks. "These would no longer be truly wild animals,"
Beck said.
No matter how good the habitat, there will be localized problems in
Colorado every year, Beck said. And until Colorado residents learn to
live with bears and not entice them with food inadvertently left
outside, people-bear encounters will continue. "Feeding will only
reinforce the behavior we're trying to avoid and end up causing more
problems," Ellenberger reiterated. "The large majority of
adult bears will survive even if they don't get as much to eat as they
typically would this summer and fall.
"If we want to continue to have wildlife species such as
bears, it's our responsibility as citizens of this state to learn to
live with them and that means making changes ourselves," he said.
"If we don't, we risk losing wildlife species that help make
Colorado such a special place for all of us to live."
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