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Show Don't Feed The Bears VERNAL - Yogi Bear, Srnokey Bear, the Teddy Bear and other media creations have bears, leading many to believe that bears are gentle, friendly, warm, cuddly and civilized. They aren't. If wild bears were as gentle and civilized as Yogi, there wouldn't be any reason not to feed or play with them. Unfortunately, while wild bears are smart, they aren't gentle or civil. A male black bear can be 300 pounds of muscle and claws. He's also used to getting his way. Nature equipped bears with extremely strong forelegs and claws to dig holes, roll boulders and tear open trees to forage for insects, small mammals and other prey. These same evolutionary adaptions can dig through garbage cans, roll coolers and tear open trailers looking for the wonderful foods the bear can smell. Bears are smart, like foods similar simi-lar to those preferred by humans and ' have an extremely good sense of smell. It doesn't take long for someone to train a bear to look to humans for food. Also, just leaving garbage near a camp or cabin will train a bear to look for camps as a food source. In the last few years, conservation conserva-tion officers from the Division of Wildlife Resources have investigated investi-gated numerous reports of bears rampaging through camps. Most investigations find the people involved had been actively feeding bears or left, garbage out that attracted bears to their campsite. camp-site. The story usually goes like this: The bear is cute and well-mannered well-mannered at first, so the campers feed it candy bars and donuts. Soon, the bear loses its fear of humans, which makes the campers nervous. The bear now stays for longer periods peri-ods of time and approaches closer until finally, when the campers leave their trailer unattended, the bear decides to take a look inside. Now the bear is a rampaging problem and a conservation officer is called in to kill it. In 1999, two bears died in Utah for this reason. Even if the original camper escapes es-capes without any problems, the bear has now been trained to look to humans for food. The next camper might not be so lucky when the bear demands to be fed. (See NO TO BEARS Page 7A) NO TO BEARS From Page 5A None of this has to happen. Prevention is simple: Do not feed bears intentionally or unintentionally unintention-ally by leaving food or garbage about. Almost all bear problems can be avoided by following some simple rules: a) keep a clean camp; b) keep yourself clean and odor free -- no cooking odors, perfumes, etc; c) separate the cooking area from the sleeping area; and, d) keep food and garbage shut inside your car, in bear-proof containers con-tainers or if camping, suspend food, garbage and game up out of the reach of bears. Other precautions include making mak-ing noise while hiking along trails and never approach a bear cub -- its mother is very protective. t Just remember, a fed bear is a dead bear. If you can't keep a clean camp for yourself, keep it clean for the bear. |
