The Bear Facts: Reducing Conflicts With Bears

Mid-summer is upon us and with reasonable predictability, Fish and Game is beginning to receive calls about bears. During this time of year, Idaho's bears range far and wide taking advantage of a variety of food sources. Unfortunately, some of these food sources are provided by humans in the form of garbage, camping supplies, pet food, compost piles, fruit trees, and even bird feeders. Once a bear finds such an easy meal, it will return time and again to investigate. And if the bear becomes too familiar with humans, the animal can become a potential danger. By following a few simple rules, you can help ensure that our bears do not associate humans with an easy meal. When out camping, keep your camp clean. Make sure that garbage is properly disposed of. If you are backpacking, horsepacking, or rafting bring your garbage out with you. Do not bury garbage, food scraps, or cooking oil. Bears have an excellent sense of smell and will easily find your leftovers. Store food in airtight containers in your vehicle if possible or hang it up out of the reach of an inquisitive bear. Personal items such as toothpaste should also be stored. If you spend a lot of time in places where bears live, you might want to consider purchasing bear-proof containers for storing food. Bears do not just cause trouble to campers. Homeowners who live in bear habitat can find themselves receiving unwanted visits by bears. Bears may be attracted by garbage, fruit trees in the yard, the compost pile, pet food, the remains of last night's steaks on the grill, cooking odors, bird feeders, or grain or sweet feeds for horses or other livestock. Making sure to address these issues can help make sure that your yard is not attractive to bears. Always store your garbage in a secure container. If you have routine garbage pick-up, do not take your garbage out until just prior to its scheduled removal. Avoid storing garbage in your garage unless you have a bear-proof container; bears have been know to tear apart garage doors to access the garbage stored inside. Landscape your yard with trees and shrubs that are not fruit-bearing. Just like us, bears also find many fruits delicious. While composting is a great way of disposing of plant waste, it is often not a good idea in bear country. The odors of composting vegetables and fruits can be quite an attractant to bears. If you just cannot give up on composting, you may want to consider purchasing a composting container rather than using an open pile. If bears become a problem, stop composting. Feed your pets indoors and store their food in airtight containers inside your house. If your pets stay outdoors, clean up leftover food each day. When you grill food, make sure to thoroughly clean your grill and store it in a secure location. Bird feeders, both seed feeders and hummingbird feeders can attract bears. Bring the feeders indoors at night to prevent bears from finding them. Make sure bird seed as well as any other pet or livestock food is stored in airtight containers in secure locations. Perhaps the most important thing to remember is to never intentionally feed bears. It just takes one time for a bear to associate humans with food. Eventually, these bears lose their natural fear of humans and they can become more aggressive in getting human foods. This creates a threat to human safety that cannot be tolerated and the bear is destroyed. A fed bear becomes a dead bear and the person who provided it with food is responsible. Bears are part of the rich wildlife resource of our state. By watching what we do, we can ensure that bears keep to themselves and that our encounters with them occur in the backcountry not the backyard. If you do experience a problem with a bear, please contact the Salmon Regional Fish and Game office at 756-2271 for assistance.