“Once in a while, we get people who say they're sick and tired of bears and would like to see them all gone,” said Jamie Jonkel, a bear biologist with Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks. “But they're usually the same angry people who leave their garbage and other food attractants out. Here in Montana, bears are a part of our natural landscape, so it's up to us to have common sense and know how to live with them.”
FWP released three black bear yearlings Monday in the Blackfoot River corridor, bringing to eight the number of bruin orphans that have been released this year in Region 2.
Their mothers likely were killed by hunters or motor vehicles, while a few cubs are orphaned when their mothers are killed by wildlife managers for being habituated to human food sources.
FWP biologists in Region 2 also have been busy this year responding to a large number of public calls about black bears around homes.
Jonkel said bear conflicts have dropped over the past five years as the FWP spreads the word about bear awareness and more residents urge their neighbors to secure their food sources.
But this year's long winter and cold spring have increased the number of bears at lower elevations, where they came to forage on vegetation and prey on deer fawns and elk calves whose mothers also came down low because of the lingering snowpack.
The bears stayed around to look for a mate in late May and early June, and now berry season is starting to burst this week in the river bottoms, so the bruins likely will stay a while longer at the lower elevations.
Also keeping them around are the tasty morsels that some people leave in their garbage cans, bird feeders, chicken coops, pet dishes, gardens, fruit trees and grain bins.
Bear reports are coming from both rural and urban areas this year. Around Missoula, most calls are from the Rattlesnake, Butler Creek and Grant Creek neighborhoods, where an estimated 15 to 20 black bears have become accustomed to human food sources, Jonkel said.
“All over Region 2, most people are really trying hard, going to their neighbors, saying, ‘Hey, this is a pretty wild area, so don't put out a salt lick, secure your garbage, put an electric fence around your apple trees,” he said. FWP “has great support, but there are always a few people who just don't get the message and that's all it takes to create a food-conditioned bear.”
This year, FWP managers have trapped and relocated several bears and killed several more because they became habituated to human food sources and accustomed to human presence.
An increasing number of people are raising chickens but not securing their grain bins, which draws bears that eat the grain and then the chickens, Edge said.
“It's important for people who are serious about changing bear behavior to run a tight ship,” Jonkel said. “If they don't, the problem will go on forever. These bears can't help but come across people's backyards.”
Meanwhile, people shouldn't worry that orphaned bears released in the wild will end up raiding a backyard garbage can, Jonkel said.
The released bears, which are tagged and dropped off in remote areas with good cover, food and water, tend to stay in the woods and seldom become problem bears, he said.
Bears that have become conditioned to human food sources - wildlife managers call them “professionals” or “holy terror bears” - are killed rather than being released.
“Some people get angry that a holy terror bear has been put on top of them, but we're real careful where we relocate bears,” Jonkel said.
On Monday, Edge and Jerod Merkle, an FWP volunteer, released the three black bear yearlings along a creek deep in the mountains in the Blackfoot corridor.
When the cage doors slid open, the bears hesitated a moment before disappearing into the forest.
“We shouldn't see them again,” Edge said. “They've got everything they need right here.”
More information is available at www.rattlesnakebears.org or www.fwp.mt.gov/wildthings/livingwwildlife.
Reporter John Cramer can be reached at 523-5259 or at johncramer@missoulian.com.
|
 |
 |
Add your comment now! Write your comment in the form below.
(Email address is for verification only. If you'd like to email a story, look for the link above)