The mother bear and three yearling cubs that have drawn so much attention for causing trouble in Hanover broke the cardinal rule of bears interacting with people: Don’t go indoors.
“If it puts its paws up on the side of the house and looks in the window because it’s curious, that’s not a huge concern. But once it learns how to break into a house, that becomes a major public safety issue,” said Maj. George W. Scribner, a game warden with the Vermont Department of Fish and Wildlife, which, like its New Hampshire counterpart, deals with many complaints of black bears that get into trash and otherwise cause problems.
Vermont receives around 165 complaints of nuisance bears each year, he said. Wardens end up killing about 20 of them.
“I just had a call today,” he added. “A bear went inside somebody’s house in the middle of the night and was eating the dog food. The guy heard something and got up, and the bear ran out. That’s definitely a high-risk bear.”
In Hanover, a black bear sow and three yearlings that have been roaming neighborhoods south of Dartmouth College in recent months moved into the high risk category last week, after two of them got inside a house.
But when the Valley News reported that New Hampshire Fish and Game planned to kill them, as it does to more than a dozen nuisance bears each year, public backlash began, in media reports and on social media. Politicians, including Gov. Chris Sununu, were drawn in, and on Friday the department said it would trap and move the bear family to the North Country instead.
Moving bears isn’t ideal, however, because New Hampshire’s black bear population has grown in recent years – an estimated 6,100 now live in the state – so the transplanted family may conflict with existing black bear populations. And a bear that has learned to enter houses in the Connecticut Valley may enter them in Coos County, as well.
“I really don’t think there’s a right answer either way,” said Keith Roberge, a hunting guide based in Gorham. “If you bring them up to Pittsburg, drop them off and the bear hurts somebody, who’s to blame?”
Ben Kilham is a well-known bear rehabilitator in Lyme who currently has six black bears, mostly cubs or yearlings that were orphaned, that he will be releasing into the wild. He told the Valley News that relocation was a poor solution, partly because of conflicts with existing bear population and partly because bears are notorious for finding their way back to their home range.
A 1998 study found that young male bears, who haven’t established a home range to return to, usually can be moved as little as 35 miles and won’t come back, but that an older female bear must be moved at least 80 miles – roughly the distance between Hanover and Gorham – to minimize the chance she’ll return.
As the flurry of attention to Hanover’s bears grew, many people contacted Clark’s Trading Post in Lincoln, where seven adult bears perform as part of the long-running show, wondering if it could take the bears. It has no room, however.
“It seems to me like moving (them) is the best possible solution, if it’s successful,” said Maureen Clark, a member of the trading post family and a bear keeper and trainer. She echoed the comments of everybody who deals with wildlife, however, that bears aren’t really the problem.
“What needs to happen is people need to change. They need to change their habits, and that will lessen the number of cases like this,” she said.
Outdoor food sources such as feeding pets on the porch, having unsealed trash cans, or leaving bird feeders up can attract bears and make them “habituated” to people, as biologists say.
“If somebody had 50 and 100 dollar bills lying around outside their house, they would have people coming up to get those, and then those people would wonder if there are any more inside – that’s kind of what the bears are doing,” Clark said.
“They’re beautiful animals, and they need to be treated with respect. Wild bears are certainly best watched and enjoyed at a distance because they can be dangerous – but typically they’re not looking for trouble, they want to avoid mankind,” she said.
Making a community less attractive to bears is easier said than done.
New Hampshire Fish and Game issued a long statement Friday noting that it and the town of Hanover “have worked together for more than a year to address what local residents and the community can do to prevent conflicts with this group of bears.” That includes holding two meetings “focused on bear conflict mitigation,” issuing warnings under a no-feeding-the-bears rule, “and the recent training of a small group of dedicated residents on hazing techniques.”
The outcry over killing these bears is slightly ironic, as New Hampshire has a thriving bear-hunting season.
Last year, a record 898 bears were taken by hunters, who as part of their technique can use dogs or put out bait to attract bears – as long as the bait doesn’t include chocolate, which was outlawed because it can be toxic to bears and other animals.
Statewide, biologists estimate we have more bears than we really want to limit problems with people and to balance the environment, especially in the White Mountains and central regions, where hunting limits have been loosened. The statewide goal is 0.52 bears per square mile, although it varies by region.
The 2017 hunting season for black bears starts Sept. 1.
(David Brooks can be reached at 369-3313 or dbrooks@cmonitor.com.)
