Thread: Ain't nature grand

https://www.tbnewswatch.com/local-ne...rthwood-910706

Personally, I would not want to unexpectedly come upon a black bear that is habituated to humans. Typical bureaucratic two step in handling the situation.

Bob

"Council approves plan to call for Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry to intervene and relocate nuisance bears within the city."

nuisance bears within the city, lol

more like nuisance human societies taking over the bears' natural habitats and chasing them away

We get bears in town from time to time. Eventually they move one, apparently they don’t like us as neighbors. There is a county in the US, I forget where, that has bears living among people. In that county it is the responsibility of the people to not encourage bears. If a bear gets into your garbage, you get fined for improper garbage storage. When there is not a good food source for bears, they go away. However there have been bears that have discovered vegetable gardens, and those ones are a little tougher to discourage from taking up residence. Around here they do not have relocation funds so all bears trapped here get destroyed and people only tend to report bad bears. Like those snacking on livestock. We have had zero negative interactions where bears have actually attacked people.

Originally Posted by TristanLudlow

"Council approves plan to call for Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry to intervene and relocate nuisance bears within the city."

nuisance bears within the city, lol

more like nuisance human societies taking over the bears' natural habitats and chasing them away

Well, we all have to live somewhere and in a city of 100,000 that dates back to the fur trade the bears lost that territory a while back. The complaints come from a section of the city that was developed 50-60 years ago so it is not like it is rural or semi rural part of the city where you would expect bear encounters.

Black bears are usually just a nuisance and pose little threat to humans but cause property damage. In this case there are walking trails with people, children and dogs present. A startled black bear habituated to humans who is annoyed further by a barking dog/dogs could have a bad outcome. It is preferable imo to have it trapped and removed to a more remote area than to have the police simply destroy it.

Bob

I live on a block that when I go 3 out of 4 ways it is a inner city park across the street.

We have extreme issues with squirrels chipmunks and rabbits. People don't like them around their house but don't want to kill them so they trap them and release them in my neighborhood.

Maybe they should offer coupons for half off cans of bear spray to anyone that wants to use the park and let the bears be. [Probably cheaper!]

That would also offer protection against muggers and feral dogs that in places that I frequent are a much more real threat.

Have they tried this?

Had a black peek his head out at a girl at the bus stop one morning my freshman yr of hs. Her daddy stayed home that day and went for a little hunt.
all the parents got a call mid-afternoon...the bus stop would be safe the next morning. The pelt ended up in front of the girls bed.

We use to go out to the borough landfill during moose season and watch the bears roll in for the buffett...up on the clift
from a safe distance.

I came across a cow moose that had just given birth (literally; the second calf wasn't even cleaned up yet). 'Ol girl tried her best to get up and come at me; she was just to tired. Still gave me a tongue lashing till I left em alone.

Originally Posted by RezDog

We get bears in town from time to time. Eventually they move one, apparently they don’t like us as neighbors. There is a county in the US, I forget where, that has bears living among people. In that county it is the responsibility of the people to not encourage bears. If a bear gets into your garbage, you get fined for improper garbage storage. When there is not a good food source for bears, they go away. However there have been bears that have discovered vegetable gardens, and those ones are a little tougher to discourage from taking up residence. Around here they do not have relocation funds so all bears trapped here get destroyed and people only tend to report bad bears. Like those snacking on livestock. We have had zero negative interactions where bears have actually attacked people.

Seems a waste to destroy them. A good friend from California lived in Alaska for quite some time. I think he was permitted to take one a year for food as I recall. Said it was good, but he would literally eat anything...

Black bears are not known for attacking humans but why take a chance in developed urban areas. The last person that I recall attacked by a black bear in our area was a tourist who stopped to feed a black bear. He had a buddy take photos and when the food ran out the black bear wanted more. End result was the tourist being taken to hospital. It is more a case of protecting black bears from humans than it is humans from black bears especially in well developed urban areas. In more rural areas they are usually dealt with in a similar manner depicted in the video, scare them away.

Bob

Bears, like humans, have the skills to hunt and gather food in the wild. However, like humans, they are opportunistic. Humans do not hunt and forage in the wild for food if there is a grocery store nearby. We have even devised convenience stores to make food more accessible. We go where the food can be obtained with minimal effort. Should we expect bears to behave any differently? After all, bears are some of the most intelligent land animals, competing favorably with many primates in that respect.