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Pastimes : Bear Stories -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: ManyMoose who wrote (534)	6/2/2006 7:43:03 PM
From: goldworldnet	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 6879

Bears dying for goodies outside, inside houses Animals that get a taste endanger people, themselves By Joey Bunch Denver Post Staff Writer DenverPost.com denverpost.com The tale of a cub who broke into a Douglas County home last week had an ending all too familiar to wildlife officials. "A fed bear is a dead bear," said Billie Gutgsell, who talks to residents about having bears as neighbors on behalf of the Boulder-based carnivore protection group, Sinapu. "Bears are eating machines on paws," she said. The bear euthanized north of Larkspur, after its latest run-in with the Collins family, sought an easy meal, and, according to the Colorado Division of Wildlife, the cub found a couple of appetizing sources - a dirty barbecue grill, a trash can with fast-food scraps and a deck sheltering melon rinds. The 18-month-old bear is believed to be the one the family reported near its home last year. Wildlife officials said the cub was merely returning to the scene to dine. Such is a recipe for danger repeated across Colorado each summer and fall, when thousands of bears are on the prowl, said Tyler Baskfield, a spokesman for the Division of Wildlife. "It's an important message that we need to get out," he said. "Don't feed the bears. We can't say it enough. With warmer weather, bears are going to be out foraging." Barbecue grills, trash cans and bird feeders are the most common targets of hungry bears. The family in Larkspur denied having food scraps available outside but earlier told reporters the bear may have been after a gingerbread house it could smell through an open window. People should keep doors and windows closed, if food is sitting out, because bears "will follow their nose," said Rob Edward, Sinapu's director of carnivore restoration. People in bear country must do more to protect themselves and avoid breaking the law. They could be fined $100 for a first offense of enticing a bear with food, $500 for a second offense and $1,000 each time after. The family in Larkspur was not fined even though officials said they had been previously warned. "It's a judgment call, and in some occurrences I think education goes a lot farther than a ticket," said Baskfield. As humans move into former wildlands, such as the area near the Pike National Forest where the bear was killed last week, it puts man and beast in the same neighborhood. "It's the worst kind of home invasion," said Gutgsell of humans cultivating the wilds. As a result, more bears have to be moved or killed to keep them out of humans' way. Between 2001 and 2004, 1,011 bears were killed by nonhunters, compared with 542 from 1997 through 2000, according to the state Division of Wildlife. That doesn't take into account hundreds of other bears collected on the edge of civilization by the division and moved to the backcountry, farther from humans, said Baskfield. But the more they are around humans, the more bears get accustomed to people and easy meals, until killing them is the only option, as it was with the cub near Larkspur. Don't blame the bears, Edward said. "These are not unusual, unpredictable circumstances, and absolutely nothing that we as humans and we as a society cannot prevent." * * *