In August and September bears are getting ready for hibernation by eating 20,000 calories each day, which comes out to about 30 Burger King Whoppers or, my personal favorite, 19 pints of Haagen Dazs ice cream./Courtesy photo

Food fight

As feasting season hits high gear, residents reminded of bear-human struggles

by Tracy Chamberlin

This is it. That time of year when bears are inhaling calories with Hoover-like speed, trying to store enough emergency-fund fat to tide them over till next spring.

This makes their daily requirement 20,000 calories, which comes out to about 30 Burger King Whoppers, 95 Taco Bell soft tacos or, my personal favorite, 19 pints of Haagen Dazs ice cream.

Colorado Parks and Wildlife spokesperson Joe Lewandowski calls it “tanking up for hibernation.”

Since I’m sure the Taco Bell drive thru has denied them service and all the ice cream is at my house, the bears are left to fend for themselves. It turns out they’d much prefer their natural diet of acorns and berries. But sometimes that’s not so easy.

Last year, nature didn’t supply much and the bears were everywhere in the mountains searching for the quickest calorie-fix they could find. And, I understand what makes trash so enticing. Accessing it can be so simple.

After all, when I’m standing in front of the fridge at midnight looking for something filling, I’m not going to cook a meatloaf. I’ll simply open the freezer, grab a spoon and take care of business.

So, it makes sense to me that when a bear knows what they can get from our garbage with as little effort as possible, they too will just grab the spoon.

They know it’s always there. They know it’s clustered together in neighborhoods. And, they know like clockwork it will come back each and every week. They likely remember trash day better than we do.

Last year, almost two-thirds of the 1,545 reported bear sightings were bears in trash. And according to the International Association for Bear Research, proper food and trash storage is the most effective way to make a difference on the human-bear battlefronts.

Even though the bear’s natural food source has been bountiful this year and local wildlife authorities have had few bear incidents, especially compared to 2012, the bears are still back in the headlines with stories that are both tragic and alarming.

Each year these tales seem to spur the reminders of bear aware basics: bring in the birdfeeders or hang them high; keep the rubbish bins out of reach; protect the livestock; store away the pet food; and don’t let the ripe or rotten fruit trees linger.

First off, a miniature horse was recently killed by a bear in Rafter J. Bears are omnivores, so?Lewandowski said it’s not unusual for them to take down an animal. It’s not common either.

One contributing factor was the fact that the pet horse was a very small animal, closer to other potential livestock prey like goats or chickens.

In the valley, a bear trap was set in the Dalton Ranch area, without success, and removed this week.

“The wildlife officer for that area said that this bear has been wandering around the golf course and through yards,” Lewandowski said, “but showing no wariness toward people. That's a concern.”

It isn’t just that we’re changing the bear’s behavior. Sometimes, we’re straight up asking them to come for a visit, and then calling the cops when we find them in the upstairs guest room.

“Once they find that food source,” Lewandowski said. “They’re going to be stuck to it.”

At this point, I?must admit I recently slipped and left my trash out on the porch all night. Of course, something ripped the bag open on my front lawn. I know it wasn’t a bear, but that doesn’t make it any better.

When someone, like myself, does leave the trash out, we are left with the possibility that we could get a ticket from city or county enforcement. However, out of the almost 522 incidents reported to city code enforcers and the sheriff’s office last year, only two citations were issued.

And while a ticket might cut into my wallet, it doesn’t quite compare to what happens to the bear. Problem bears, or nuisance bears, are tagged the first time they’re caught, and then released. If theyget busted again, they are put down.

Currently, authorities have limited management strategies. They can try relocation, aversive conditioning or, the least desirable, lethal removal.

As for relocation, whether the stats come from Colorado Parks and Wildlife, the Association for Bear Research, or something a closer to home like Bear Smart, the numbers always slant on the side of fruitless.

Just to toss a couple results out there, one study showed 80 percent of bear relocations failed and another listed the survival rate after successful relocation at just 35 percent. Sometimes the bears just can’t make it in unfamiliar territory. Sometimes they just instinctually head home. Either way, they can end up falling victim to the lethal removal option as “nuisance bears.”

With aversive conditioning, trained dogs and noisemakers are used to create a negative experience when the bear is released back in the wild. The idea is to teach the bear using deterrents that a specific location symbolizes a negative experience. Although, it sounds troublesome or even a bit rough, it can be effective.

It makes me wonder ... instead of writing me a ticket, if the authorities showed up on my lawn and surrounded me with barking dogs and loud noisemakers while I cleaned up the trash, would I?remember to take it to the dumpster next time? n