Be Bear Smart – Let’s Keep Bears Wild
By Contributor
Spring is here in our beautiful Kootenay mountains. With the warming weather, the wild creatures in our forests are ready to wake and find some food. Among the largest will be the black bear. Black bears go into a torpor, a deep sleep, during winter and can last for as long as 100 days without food or water. So, as you can imagine, they emerge from their dens hungry! During March, some bears will be too eager and will leave their den when snow is still on the ground. If after wandering around for a bit the spring grass is nowhere to be found, they’ll go back to their den and sleep again. This is the natural order of their lives. They’ll be fine.
Some bears wake to find no available grass but they remember containers of food left out on the long flat paths. The long flat paths are human roads and the food containers are our garbage bins. The bears are simply hungry and remember a food source from last year. Their mom may have shown them how to find these feasts. This is a problem. The bears need to stay wild so human/bear conflict doesn’t occur. It’s much safer for the bear to stay out of town.
A bear in the wild will find plenty of food once the snow has melted and spring grass and dandelions are abundant. As the months progress they will feast on bugs, berries, and nuts, sometimes a mouse, but not often. About 80% of a wild black bear’s diet will be plant based. They don’t need to eat human garbage. Even the skinny looking two-year-olds who have been told by mom to manage on their own will find enough food in the wild.
Many of us find black bears endearing. We like to watch them, especially a momma sow with cubs. They will find food; they need to find food. Let’s not feed them human leftovers. A bear in troublesome conflict with a human over human food will have to be put down.
Please firmly attach the lid to your garbage bin, and only put the bin out on the morning of pick-up. Another trick to keep bears away is to attack their tremendously sensitive sense of smell. Most can’t stand the smell of Pine Sol. Even if you can’t clean your bin very often, just pour some Pine Sol into the bottom, it doesn’t take much.
Bears can smell a candy or chip wrapper in your car. Yup, their sense of smell is that good. Try to keep your car clear of food stuffs and lock your car doors. They’re smart, they can open an unlocked car or truck door. A bear trapped in a car if the door closes on them is not a pretty sight.
We’re volunteers with the Rossland Bear Smart Task Force. We’ll be writing articles during bear season on topics like: What to do if you Encounter a Bear – How to tell a Black Bear from a Grizzly Bear – When to contact a Conservation Officer about a Bear – How a Momma Sow only Conceives the Number of Cubs She can Feed, and other amazing facts about the black bear.
Contact us @ www.rosslandsustainability.com – scroll down to Bear Smart Task Force.
