California's black bears are intelligent, ingenious and opportunistic. They eat anything and everything: fruits, nuts, insects, human food and pet food. They love bird feeders. They make mountain fighters that the lion kills, like the deer, which they find. It is called Kleptoparasitism. They can use their lower teeth to open an unlocked car door. If you find a road in your home and kitchen, you can open peanut butter jars and jam and, of course, love.
They are the only species of bears in the state and, despite the name, its skin varies in blond to black color. A century has passed since the brown bear was hunted to extinction in California, leaving only its image, ironically, on the state flag.
Estimating black bears numbers is a tense exercise. In its draft of the Black Bear Conservation Plan, the Department of Fishing and Wildlife of California, using a new methodology, the population of approximately 65,000 and says that it has been stable for a decade. (For years, the department had estimated the population in 35,000 using a less advanced statistical modeling). The WENDY KEEFOVER Wildlife Straight Strategy of the Humany World For Animals human group, previously the United States human society, argues that the number is simply an assumption, and warns against putting too much emphasis on it because Apex predators such as bears are scarcely populated and slowly reproduced.
What happened with the population of bears, we know with certainty that the reports of Bear-Human interactions have increased. According to the Department of Fishing and Wildlife, the reports have increased for decades, not due to more bears but more people who live and on vacation in bears territory. There was an average of 674 annual reports from 2017 to 2020, but that shot up to 1,678 per year for 2021 and 2022. The Tahoe basin and the foothills of the mountains of San Gabriel were private hot spots.
California Assemblyman, Heather Hadwick (R-Highness), whose district includes one of those hot points, has introduced bill 1038 of the Assembly, which would allow the nebular hunters to bears, but not kill them, by making the dogs pursue them. The legislature was prohibited by the legislature in 2012 and should not return even if the hunters do not intend to kill the bears.
As in 2012, it is still cruel to bears, which end up exhausted and clinging to a tree. Dogs and bears can fight. And it is not clear how to chase a random bear, maybe in a forest, he will discourage him from looking for food around humans. (The Department of Fishing and Wildlife already allows, in limited situations, particularly the problematic bears in the communities or close to the cattle so that the dogs are novel).
Another part of Hadwick's bill would authorize the Fisheries and Hunting Commission to decide if hunters could use desires once again to hunt and kill bears. The legislature has already prohibited this practice, and giving up its power over that prohibition to a designated commission makes no sense.
Although the proposals of this bill are not useful, the Human Bear Meetings are dangerous and must be minimized. There is a better way to do that. Animal department and well -being advocates urge Californians to find ways to make homes, cars, camps and farms unattractive for bears. There are numerous suggestions. Bears love smelly food. Do not leave any food outside. Use garbage cans with bears -proof pestillos. Take out all the food from your car and then block the doors of the car. On the doors, place rugs that cause soft electric shock when a bear approaches; They are called “unwanted mats.” Tracking spaces should be ensured in mallets. Remove the bird feeders from your patio.
Cattle must be kept on safe pen at night. Electric fences can be installed around chickens and enclosures. And for bears that continue to boil around houses or cattle, there are novatadas forms that do not involve dogs chasing them. Lights activated by movement, noise manufacturers and alarms can scare bears.
And not the feeds. In fact, it is prohibited in the state of California. But Ann Bryant, executive director and founder of the Bear League in the Tahoe basin, says that some tourists do it anyway, putting food out of where they are hoping to attract a bear and then take a photo. It works, and then the bear returns waiting for more food. It was then that Bryant, whose organization's volunteers help people live more harmoniously with bears, receive a call from someone who wants to know how to make the bear stop arriving.
Bryant's advice is simple and simple: stop getting food, and if the bear appears again, “you stepped on your feet and shouts:” Get out of here! “You are taking away your confidence that people will be kind and feed them. You have to make the bear know that the game is over.”
So, with all these methods, why do bears still arrive? “These methods work,” says Fish and Wildlife Peter Tira spokesman. They only need to be more adopted: “The key is continuous education and consciousness, forming good habits, reaching both residents and visitors to the country of bears.”
It will depend on the department to transmit the message more aggressively. But here there are some tips that tourists should remember, says Bryant: “Always think about your mind, 'I am in the country of bears'”.
