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OUR GOAL IS TO RESOLVE HUMAN-BEAR CONFLICT

Bears are lured to residential areas mainly by garbage and bird feeders which we put out without understanding that human-sourced food is causing bears to die young.

WHO WE ARE:

Bear Smart WA is an entirely volunteer-run organisation dedicated to community outreach which prevents unnecessary bear mortality due to conflict with humans.

HUMAN-BEAR CONFLICT

Conflicts arise from the availability of attractants. Humans responsible due to inattention to how habits affect wildlife.

RESOLUTION

Resolution begins at home - as residents control attractants - especially garbage.

CO-EXISTENCE...

A result of insight into bear behavior; and applying daily awareness with regard to local wildlife.

ONLINE REPORTING OF BEAR SIGHTINGS & INCIDENTS*

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Time, Date, Location & Description of Bear Behavior. State if help or advice is required. *

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CONFLICTS IN WASHINGTON STATE...

ARE ESCALATING!

Human-caused conflict

In order to survive, bears must consume huge amounts of calories. Black
bears are opportunists with a powerful sense of smell. They easily find in garbage, the necessary calories their bodies demand. The primary cause of human-bear conflict is the negligently available garbage, bird-feeders, pet food, and unprotected chicken coops.

Why Conflict Exists
The image of the black bear as predatory or aggressive is a fallacy. Wild, Washington Black bears are shy & retiring, preferring to be left alone, they run when they sense humans. However, bears can become habituated to humans, and food conditioned to human food sources, and then they can seem bold and nonchalant.

Habituation & Food Conditioning are terms to describe how bears change their behavior around humans.

Food Conditioning occurs when bears eat human-sourced food, be it garbage or unprotected small livestock.

Habituation occurs when bears are repeatedly exposed to humans, and stop responding to their natural fear of humans. It is this loss of fear that causes conflict by endangering their lives. When animals stop seeing humans as threats they can be hurt or killed by humans. Strongly habituated bears that have been rewarded with food multiple times can become bold and even seem menacing or completely nonchalant to humans.

Conflict endangers bears:
By eating trash, their bodies' needs to satisfy demand for calories is ever-growing. Once a bear's frame is over-sized, the main way to sustain their weight is by going back to garbage.

Bears eat a lot of plastic, glass and metal found in garbage also causes digestive tract failure - and subsequently - death.

Garbage & the other attractants also cause bears to cross highways to find them, leading to deaths due to vehicular collisions. (Which also result in human injury & property damage.)

Development and displacement of wildlife in prime bear habitat means we replace their natural, wild foods with garbage and other human-sourced foods, which bears’ find irresistible. Land development in prime bear habitat is indirectly related to the increase in human-bear conflict, and to the numbers of bears and incidents in the area which have risen, 25% over previous years.*

Humans are ultimately the cause of human-bear conflict by making food sources available to bears.

*WDFW statistic

RESOLUTION REQUIRES...

KNOWLEDGE!

Major Bear attractants:

1. Garbage

2. Bird Feeders

3. Chickens, rabbits, & bee hives

4. Outdoor Animal
or Pet food

5.Fruit trees and grapevines

6. Small livestock

Garbage and Bird-Feeders account for approx. 70% of all conflict between humans and bears. (Studies show)

1. Best solutions are bear resistant garbage containers or storing garbage indoors until morning of pickup.

2. Stow bird feeders between March and November.

3. Livestock, beehives, fruit trees/orchards and pets should be should be protected with the use of electric fences.

Any attractants that draw bears to human residential areas, causes conflict between humans and bears. When conflict arises the bears always lose and often pay with their lives.

BECOME
THE SOLUTION

COEXISTENCE & BEARS

Changing our ways:

Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife (WDFW) studies show that bears living in areas of human-bear conflict are 26% less likely to survive than wild bears in wild conditions and habitat. When bear cubs are raised on garbage, they have greatly lowered chances of reaching maturity / surviving longterm.

Relocation by wildlife officers is no longer considered a good solution, and studies have show them to be either mostly useless or an expensive death sentence. Dropping an immature bear into another bear’s territory forces introduced bears to fight resident bears over habitat and resources - a fight which many bears lose, with fatal consequences. Mature bears who survive the experience often find their way back home back to the garbage residents are still putting out for them, while many bears are simply killed attempting to cross roads on their way home or to find garbage.

Bears are often shot through misunderstanding and ignorance. Farmers or homesteaders who don't use electric fencing lose livestock to bears (as well as coyote, bobcat and cougar) repeatedly. No matter how many they shoot there is always another bear to take its place. The same can be said for the methods of euthanizing & relocaton. Only specialized electric fencing works every time to keep bears out of livestock areas.

Bear Smart WA considers WA Department of Fish & Wildlife (WDFW) to be the most progressive wildlife agency in North America with some of the nation's finest Bear Biologists.
WDFW's current best practices involve the use Karelian Bear Dogs and Aversive Conditioning Techniques 'in situ' which de-condition bears from humans and their neighborhoods.

More information on WDFW's Karelian Bear Dog Program

* WDFW have an online reporting tool here. We recommend that you report to both BEAR SMART WA AND WDFW:
wdfw.wa.gov/enforcement/violation/reportStart.html

Other Bear Smart groups across the country:

British Columbia:
Get Bear Smart Society:
Sylvia Dolson
Executive Director
ph: 604-938-4209 | Skype: sylvia.dolson
Facebook: Bear Smart
Twitter/Instagram: @bearsmart
YouTube: GetBearSmartTV
www.bearsmart.com

Lake Tahoe, California
BEAR League
Ann Bryant
530-525-PAWS(7297)
bearsnsquirrels@sbcglobal.net
www.savebears.org

Durango, CO
BearSMART
Bryan Peterson, Executive Director
PO Box 2291 Durango, CO 81302-2291
970-749-4262
bp@frontier.net
www.bearsmartdurango.org

Washington State
BearSmartWA
PO Box 152, Issaquah WA 98027
530-628-7787
bearsmartwa@gmail.com
instagram: bear_smart_wa
twitter: bearsmartwa
facebook: BearSmartWA

​BEAR SMART WA.