Page 1 of 1

Drought drawing bears near people at Lake Tahoe

Posted: Fri Jul 11, 2014 5:10 pm
by rlown
beach bear.jpg
RENO — Long accustomed to dealing with bad news "garbage" bears that become hooked on improperly stored trash at homes and businesses around Lake Tahoe, Nevada wildlife officials say they're increasingly responding to a new kind of troublemaker they've started calling "drought" bears.

Experts have been predicting for months the lingering drought will lead to significantly more bear problems throughout the Sierra Nevada this summer. Three consecutive years of abnormally dry conditions have reduced most mountain creeks to a trickle and eliminated many natural food sources, forcing bears to greatly expand their search for food into urban neighborhoods, said Carl Lackey, chief wildlife biologist for the Nevada Department of Wildlife.

On Friday, wildlife officials captured their seventh problem bear in the last 10 days at Tahoe. An eighth was hit and killed by a car last week.

"We're calling a lot of these 'drought' bears," Nevada Department of Wildlife spokesman Chris Healy told The Associated Press. "These are bears that want to be wild, they are doing their best to be wild and trying to stay up in the hills, but they just don't have any food."

Many of the bears can be relocated and released to the wild, including a 3-year-old female trapped on Tahoe's east shore near Glenbrook early Friday.

But another bear had to be killed on Wednesday because it was trying to break into homes and cars, and even wandered onto a busy private beach in a gated community before wardens shot it with a tranquilizer dart and later euthanized it.

...
Full story at: http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20 ... /140719905" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Re: Drought drawing bears near people at Lake Tahoe

Posted: Fri Jul 11, 2014 5:17 pm
by maverick
That could get pretty dangerous, a starving bear, is a desperate bear, which could
lead to possible confrontations with humans, and guess who will suffer again, poor
bears. :(

Re: Drought drawing bears near people at Lake Tahoe

Posted: Fri Jul 11, 2014 5:32 pm
by Rockchucker
image.jpg
At my house a few weeks ago.

Re: Drought drawing bears near people at Lake Tahoe

Posted: Fri Jul 11, 2014 5:38 pm
by rlown
hmm. the fence doesn't appear to work.. :) And it's not bear season.. yet...

Re: Drought drawing bears near people at Lake Tahoe

Posted: Fri Jul 11, 2014 5:42 pm
by maverick
Cool photo Rock, all the bear needs now is a Zorro mask.

Re: Drought drawing bears near people at Lake Tahoe

Posted: Fri Jul 11, 2014 5:48 pm
by rlown
it'll be back. that wasn't a college prank. What was the bear after, Rockchucker?

Re: Drought drawing bears near people at Lake Tahoe

Posted: Fri Jul 11, 2014 5:55 pm
by austex
I bet it w/b back. Isn't it kind of odd so far in the flats? Hey if they climb trees; fence is no defense. Like locks; keeps the honest people honest.

Re: Drought drawing bears near people at Lake Tahoe

Posted: Fri Jul 11, 2014 6:03 pm
by rlown
CDFW stats: http://www.dfg.ca.gov/wildlife/hunting/bear/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Archery opens up mid August. Not sure what they'll do this year. the "quota" is still around 1700 per year before the season is closed.

From this report, sounds like we should all take really good care of our food.

Re: Drought drawing bears near people at Lake Tahoe

Posted: Sat Jul 12, 2014 6:26 am
by Rockchucker
rlown wrote:it'll be back. that wasn't a college prank. What was the bear after, Rockchucker?
Probably food left at the park, there have been multiple sightings all over the valley floor lately.