The Bears Who Came to Town and Would Not Go Away

Re:The Bears Who Came to Town and Would Not Go Away by cushychicken on Sunday June 26, 2016 @10:18AM (#11980883)

I wonder how helpful that would be. It sounds like the influx was due to a failure of their normal food sources; the bears sound like they were starving and desperate. Would they move on from the town if all the food sources were locked down? My experience growing up near bears in the western US was that they generally stayed far away from people whenever possible. The fact that they were in town at all is a sign of pretty dire straits for their food source.

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Re:The Bears Who Came to Town and Would Not Go Away by fsociety on Sunday June 26, 2016 @01:30PM (#11981676)

I grew up in the Jasper area, and we'd have bear traps placed all around the town, in forests. The bears loved to head in to town for some easy pickings of food. Often they'd be tranquilized if they became a problem, and then moved to a new area.

In my personal opinion, I'd say they weren't necessarily starved for food but they would continue heading back to town because they were handled very carefully when encountered with a human. If they were put in a situation of harm, they'd be killed instead of being harmlessly tranquilized.

It was fairly common to wake up in the middle of the night with a bear going through your garbage. The town's are fairly small and in close proximity with the forest. I think it's less about food supply and more about constant exposure to humans, easy access, and living in close proximity.

For the most part, the bears were fairly harmless too. Any aggressive bear would be immediately killed.

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Re:The Bears Who Came to Town and Would Not Go Away by cushychicken on Sunday June 26, 2016 @03:16PM (#11982182)

Interesting that there's no mention of the normal amount of bear activity there.

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