Several months ago — about the time bears crawled out of their dens and started looking for some tasty grub — the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife issued a few guidelines that would help us avoid close encounters with the hungry bruins.
Alas, many of us paid no heed. The bears came. They saw. They ate whatever we left them.
And then we (or, more accurately, many our fellow Mainers, because you and I would surely never have given these bears reason to visit) threw up their hands and called for help.
Although there’s plenty of bear chow out in the woods right now, including some downright tasty berries, Doug Rafferty of the DIF&W filed another update this week, reminding us (again) to stop feeding (again) the bears.
And Rafferty, the DIF&W’s director of information and education, spelled out just how severe the human-bear problem has been this year. (Notice, I said “human-bear,” rather than “bear-human,” because … well … most of the problems are our fault. The bears are just being bears.
“Due to a higher than normal number of bear-related complaints this year in Maine, the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife wants to remind the public how to best avoid bear conflicts,” Rafferty wrote in a department press release.
“This year’s premature spring caused bears to emerge from their dens earlier, meaning they have been searching for food longer,” the release stated. “Between January 1 and July 3 of this year, the Maine Warden Service received 542 bear-related complaints, compared to 292 in the same period of 2010 and 252 in 2011.”
So, the bears are out there. And they’re getting so close to our homes and property that we’ve decided to call in reinforcements.
Instead, why don’t we all listen to biologist Jennifer Vashon and stop giving the bears a reason to visit.
“Our goal is to prevent bears from being comfortable finding foods in people’s backyards by advising residents to remove bear attractants,” Vashon said in the release. “A bear on a porch or deck is alarming but often occurs because there are food items there.”
So here (again) are a few ways to keep bears at bay. Notice: “Calling a game warden” is not on the list. That’s a last resort — one that needn’t happen if you and your neighbors follow these simple guidelines from the DIF&W:
• The only way to avoid bears from visiting bird feeders in backyards and on porches and decks is to remove the bird feeders or make them inaccessible. People are also reminded to rake up any seed from the ground and to store unused seed in a secure building.
• Trash that is brought to the curb the night before trash pickup is an easily accessible source of food for bears. Once bears access your garbage, they may become bolder and begin visiting the area during the day in search of food. People should wait until the morning of trash pickup to bring their trash to the curb and should store trash in a secure building that can’t be opened by a bear.
• Garbage cans should not be overfilled so they are able to be closed and latched at all times. If you are experiencing problems with a bear accessing your Dumpster, you can install a bear-proof lid, store the Dumpster behind a fence or increase trash pickup.
• If possible, store grills inside when not in use. Remember to burn off any food residue, dispose of wrappers and clean the grilling area after use.
Salmon returns sluggish
After a banner year in 2011, Atlantic salmon returns on the Penobscot River have been sluggish for much of the spring and summer thus far in 2012.
Mitch Simpson, a biologist for the Maine Bureau of Sea-Run Fisheries and Habitat, which tends the trap at the Veazie Dam, issued his weekly report on Tuesday, and pointed out that high water due to rainstorms in the area had forced his colleagues to close the trap for four days.
When they reopened it on Monday, 22 salmon were captured. That put the yearly total at 584 fish. By the same date in 2011, a whopping 2,851 salmon had been trapped. You’d have to go back to 2007 (556 fish) to find a year that had a slower start.
Also illustrating this year’s lower-than-hoped-for returns: During the 1980s, staffers collected an average of 31 salmon per day at the Veazie trap. During the 1990s, they averaged 30 fish a day. In the decade of the 2000s, the averaged dropped to 19 fish per day.
This year, staffers are catching just nine fish per day, on average.
Here’s hoping for better days ahead.
John Holyoke may be reached at jholyoke@bangordailynews.com or 990-8214. Check out his blog at outthere.bangordailynews.com and follow him on Twitter @JohnHolyoke.
this is maine we have bears, please take care of things and there will not be a problem.do not blame the bears.
Wildlife does not need man to feed it. All wildlife can and should find its own food without the interference of man. Why do some people insist on trying to “take care of” animals. Buy a cat or dog those domesticated or pet animals need your care. Some people have no clue that making any wild animal, and that includes birds, dependent on their hand out takes away their independence from man. Would you want to go from being independent to being dependent?
“Would you want to go from being independent to being dependent?”
Well obviously, millions of people do. It’s what democrats want and need.
That is why I am not a liberal. I prefer to make my own way and do with the money I earn whatever I want to do. I will give to the causes I believe in and will not be forced to give to a government which treats me like a child. Nanny state is not for me.
Some critics will reach for anything, however tenuous …
“Some critics will reach for anything, however tenuous …” or truthful.
is it considered feeding the bears when the bear comes into your yard and drags a good size evergreen trash can across the yard and takes off with two bags of your garbage? lol Ow Fyi, I dont have a shed to put my can in, and the trees around my house are kind of tipsy looking, so I am actually doing as I am supposed to. I did find that putting white vinegar around and in the can has actually detered the big guy from coming back.
Do you have a basement?
When bears are trained in bait season to savor donuts, surplus pastry, frying fat and all kinds of other things that smell just like those good odors from our kitchens and grills, is it any wonder they learn to come around the back door looking for a handout?
Maybe fair-chase bear hunting would reduce bear-problems around camps and houses.
After seeing once when a problem bear was attracted into a live trap past a heap of garbage by anise flavoring in the trap, it seemed it might be a good idea not to carry licorice candy in the woods.
Bears do not become habituated to human food at the exclusion of natural bear foods. In fact, given the choice, they prefer natural foods. But it’s still too early for them to get the nuts and berries they prefer, so they’re going to go for what’s the easiest to get, with the least risk.
They are eating machines. To them, food is like money to us. If they can get it easily, they will take it.
And despite what some people think, hunting bears over bait is not a sure kill. All but the most desperate of bears will go to the bait station at night, and usually the bears that are taken are young males who are still trying to establish a home range.
Baiting is still not a good idea.
Yea lets try that. I am a hunter and I dislike the anti hunting folks. For that sake of this I will say sure lets ban bating all together. No trapping no hunting over bait. Now the first year we do this the bear population will grow due to the numbers of bear being taken will drop to less then 50! You are not going to shoot a bear without bait the chances are WICKED small. So after a few years when the bears are out of hand let me know how this works out. I live in the country up here. I am armed and have a dog that barks when a bear gets even close so I am not worried. The IFW sure does not care unless there is a buck in it for them..
A wild bear is petrified of a human being by nature. However, after they have been conditioned like Pavlov’s dog eating the bear bait (buckets of donuts and grease beneath a tree stand) put out by the bear baiting guides, they lose their natural fear of man and can be come very troublesome and dangerous. I know because I was once a bear baiting guide. Bear baiting should be stopped immediately unless people want bears in our back yards. The former Chief Warden Tom Santaguida showed me all of the warden bear complaints and agrees totally with my assessment.
The research says otherwise.
What research are you referencing? Please cite your sources.
He has none.
Your research, probably biased?
“Black Bear Assessment and Strategic Plan,” Craig R. McLaughlin, Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, 1999.
“Black Bears, People, and Garbage Dumps In Minnesota,” Lynn L. Rogers, USDA, year unknown, circa 1989.
“Nuisance Bears in Communities: Strategies to Reduce Conflict,” John D. Peine, USGS Biological Resources Division, 2001.
“The Bears Among Us,” New York Times Magazine, 2007.
“Spring Hunger Luring Bears Into Backyards,” Portland Press Herald, 2006.
Bears are not petrified of humans. And, whatever respect they have shown towards humans is quickly eroded by the hand outs and easy meals provided. They succumb to the easy food with which they are baited. Hunting over bait should be outlawed unless we reach a point at which bears are too numerous for the environment. Unnatural food sources provide such an imbalance which leads to too many of one species.
Bears may not be “petrified” of us, but they certainly don’t care for being friends with us. Again, it comes down to risk vs. reward when it comes to food. There are at least a dozen bears whose range includes Rolland F. Perry City Forest here in Bangor. But despite this, people don’t see them every day. The bears still keep a low profile.
It’s when natural food is scarce and bears still need more calories that they will gravitate toward human food.
Hunting bears with bait is the only safe and humane way to hunt bears. Otherwise, you’re going to have hunters shooting at bears on the run and wounding bears instead of killing them.
A hunt should be just that–a hunt. Baiting is wrong. I would not go down to the landfill to shoot them either, where is the sport in that. Hunting deer or bear needs to be done without enticing the prey to us. As for wounding, most good hunters would wait for a clean/clear shot and would go after a wounded animal. Hunting is getting a bad reputation for the lack of a real hunt. Sitting over bait is not hunting. The bait is put out long before the hunting season begins—everyone knows that.
But, if over population warrants it, I am not against baiting and shooting. Too often the fish and game people are more interested in money for licenses and jobs security and don’t manage wildlife well at all.
“As for wounding, most good hunters would wait for a clean/clear shot and would go after a wounded animal.”
First, I’m not a hunter. Second, I used to be staunchly opposed to baiting bear.
However, the more I have learned about bears (they are my favorite wildlife), the more I have grown to accept that baiting is really the only humane way to hunt them. As I tell people who go on the bear walks I conduct for the Bangor Land Trust, just because you haven’t seen a bear out in the woods doesn’t mean a bear hasn’t seen you.
The fact of the matter is black bears have survived for so long because they are highly intelligent (adapting their movements to limit their contact with people, for the most part), they have a sense of smell far superior to that of a dog’s, and they use the woods for their defense against humans. Once they sense you coming, they’re going to get off the trail and hide.
Most bear sightings in the woods are mere glimpses — you see the bear, then it runs into thick cover. It would not be safe for a hunter to shoot at a bear in that situation, because the bear would be moving or the hunter would be tempted to shoot at the mere sound of movement after the bear disappears. Nor would it be humane should the hunter hit the bear, because such a hit would likely not be a kill shot.
Baiting enables the hunter to determine the size of the bear (the good hunters will pass on yearlings or smaller bears), whether the bear is a mother with cubs (in which case the good hunters will pass on the shot), and to make a clean kill shot.
Although most bears are killed over bait, the success rate for baiting is still low. Overall, only about 24 percent of bear hunters will be successful each year (with about 80 percent of each year’s kills done over bait). So even with bait, the success rate for hunters is low. This is because bears will simply wait until darkness sets in before taking the bait. Only the most desperate of bears will disregard the scent of the nearby hunter and take the bait during hunting hours.
Why do you think there was a bounty on bears for so many years in the effort to exterminte them from the State? Why do you think bears were considered a fur bearer and not a big game animal? Why do you think IF&W removed them from the fur bearer status in 1981 and made them a big game animal? It’s all about money folks and little to do with anything else. As the bear baiting guides continue to condition the bear like Pavlov’s dog, bear problems will continue to worsen. We recently had a bear incident in the town of Winthrop and I have never in my 50 years of living in Winthrop ever heard of a bear in this area. An unconditioned bear prefers to live in the wilderness where there are no people. The bear baiting guides have now become a bigger problem than the bears – for it is they who are the problem and causing the bear problems.
I forgot about the great bear baiting guides of Winthrop. So how did guides condition a bear in the area to depend on humans, if there was never a bear in the area? Also comparing Pavlov’s dog experiment to bear baiting is flawed. 1. Pavlov’s dog never got a break from the stimulus. Bear baiting only occurs for a few months a year. 2. The time of year. One would think that the majority of bear complaints would occur during baiting or shortly after, if you were correct. However, most complaints occur after several months of the bear receiveing no stimulus by humans. 3. Pavlov’s dog received the stimulus at every meal, bear baiting is at most a supplemental feeding. 4. States that banned bear baiting still have a high number of bear complaints. You can’t blame baiting if in States that have no baiting the bears are still causing problems. Whats the stimulus? 5. Bears that receive the most stimulus during bear baiting, normal don’t make it past bear season.
Tell Mister Rafferty that if he is so adamant about feeding bears he can start eliminating it by banning bait “hunters’ from feeding bears millions of pounds of human junk food every year for 3 months.. What a hypocrite. Outdoor Woman below. Bait can be used for 3 MONTHS beginning with the prebaiting month, during the baiting season, during the hound season, and during the trapping season. All three use bait so that means August, Sept, and October see bait being used.
It’s not quite that long. Bait can put out starting July 28 this year. Hunting over bait begins August 27 and the season ends September 22. I completely understand what you’re saying, it’s just not quite that long.
Unrelated to autumnbelle’s comment, I think it’s naive to think that bears are only a problem where hunters are baiting. Our neighborhood dealt with a destructive bear two years ago. There weren’t any baits placed by hunters. The bait was left out by neighbors who put their trash in unsecured places, left their grills out, left food in cars and on picnic tables, and one who left food on the kitchen table by the open window. It was a disaster. Hunters aren’t the only people feeding the bears.
This is Maine… we need more Bears and less people.
Heres a novel idea. Since maines bear population has been well over IFWs ideal population for many years, maybe they should try game management. Remember when that was the job description? Of course relating increasing conflicts with over population just won’t do in this pc world we live in.
What a joke.
That’s what Inland Fisheries and Wildlife does when it compares data from the den surveys to the hunting stats. The data are used to determine how many bear permits to issue and when and for how long to have the different parts of the bear hunting season. Bear hunting is management.
Perhaps you should research before you post. The dept does not issue permits dependant on data, anyone can buy one. They do not adjust the season, as they should, according to the population, otherwise a spring season would be in place to bring down the over population. Bear hunting should be management, the only effective way to manage, but it is not. Perhaps you are thinking of another state, as your post does not fit our IFW.
A bear. I have only seen 2 or 3 for a few seconds, they seem to keep to themselves, the black bear, the old timers used to say, they travel, be at one place and miles away 2 days later, I would not know. I know the mince meat is not too bad, but the steaks are far too greasy and tough for my taste, I was given some once, do not want any more. I know they will roll around and make a mess out of a good blackberry patch, lol. It seems to me that hunters spend a lot of time and money to bait and shoot bears, probable keeps the population down, I think good hunters do not get the respect they should, they bait a bear and shoot it. It is much more humane than how some poultry and beefers get it in the big processing plants. Mother Nature can be damn cruel too, I vote to respect our hunters and leave them alone.
Bears are animals just like humans. Some are good, some are a little mean. I worked with animals all my life and know that there is just no reasoning with some of them. I do know that when people decide to feed bears of make it easy for them to get food, bears will take the easy way out. Some bears can manage around humans, yet, others will charge huffing. Some even go after the family pets to get their food. Do your best to keep your yard free of food. Don’t assume bears do not attack humans, that is a huge myth. Some bears will attack and some have killed children–yes, even black bears have killed young children. The trouble with some humans is they thing every thing in nature is like the family dog.
“Some bears can manage around humans, yet, others will charge huffing.”
That’s known as a bluff-charge. Contact rarely occurs, because the bear doesn’t intend to initiate contact — just get you to move along. To hear a classic bluff-charge, go to http://cityforest.bangorinfo.com/multimedia.htm and scroll down to “Audio” and click on the bluff-charge sound file.
It was a mother bear at Rolland F. Perry City Forest here in Bangor. I was speeding along at 9:30 at night, on my way back to the car, when I startled the mother and her cub. I was too close to even try to get a photo with the lens I had mounted to my camera, so I pulled out my field recorder instead.
“Don’t assume bears do not attack humans, that is a huge myth. Some bears will attack and some have killed children–yes, even black bears have killed young children.”
Black bear attacks on humans are quite rare. Black bears killing humans are even rarer. In cases in which children have been killed, I have seen a common element: the attack happened in a campground with the child dragged from the tent.
Guess what? If you camp in bear country, don’t put any food in your tent, don’t cook near your tent, change your clothes after eating and store them away from the tent, and wash up and brush your teeth. In each case, I’m willing to bet the attack was nothing more than a case of mistaken identity, not intent on the bear’s part to kill a human. It was the scent of that tasty burger that attracted the bear. Children, naturally, are more likely to be killed because they can’t fight back.
The myth is to play dead if attacked by a bear. Well, it depends on why the bear is attacking you. If the bear is attacking to defend cubs (a trait of the grizzly bear, NOT the black bear) or itself, play dead. That’s because a dead person is no longer a threat; the bear will leave.
If a bear is attacking to eat you (which black bears will do, either in a case of mistaken identity or in rare cases in remote areas where bears and humans do not have much contact), fight back. Food is like money to bears. If it costs too much to get the food, the bear will leave. To the black bear, it’s not worth fighting with you because doing so costs too much in calories.