To Feed or Not to Feed - UPDATE October 1, 2021
June 8-5-13The photo is of June—the bear that showed us more about black bear life in good times and not so good times than did any other bear. I wish she were still here to walk with and learn how bears live in times of extremely scarce natural food these past two years.
In this time of debate about feeding, I’m reminded of the many misconceptions about this topic.
Wildlife Research Institute
To Feed or Not to Feed
Consequences of feeding black bears?
Feeding bears is one of the least studied aspects of bear biology. As a result, many of the beliefs about it have little or no scientific foundation. Here is a list of statements (in italics) that were handed out to residents of Eagles Nest Community as gospel by a wildlife official in September 2007. Some of the statements may be true from time to time, but none typify black bear behavior. The bulleted information is from actual research—either cited from other sources or from our own research. However, a caveat is that the last two years (2020 and 2021) have produced such extreme drought and scarce berries and hazelnuts that we are seeing more bears that ever in our studies. Some ore familiar bears taking advantage of diversionary feeding sites that keep them out of trouble in times of food scarcity. These include some of the oldest bears in Minnesota. But this year we are also seeing bears we never saw before as bears are driven out of large areas by fire and smoke. Some of these are coughing up blood and thick flehm that we believe is from smoke inhalation. Feeding these bears has allowed us to see them recover. Some of the bears are skinny from the lack of food. Skinny mothers that appeared here did not appear to be producing much milk and had unusually small cubs. Feeding them allowed us to see the mother produce more milk and the cubs grow into healthy youngsters. The drought and scarce food situation extends far up into Canada. Bears that face scarce food travel much farther than usual, and some of them are likely the skittish newcomers that we are seeing here in this time when Minnesota’s own population is at a recent low. The latest DNR estimate is only 10,000 to 12,000 in the state compared to 20,000 to 25,000 a couple decades ago. At the same time more bears are coming out of the woods due to hunger, making bear numbers appear to be high. In this time of hunger, hungry bears are traveling from one diversionary feeding site to another and mostly staying out of trouble as they pass through people’s yards. Numbers have waned now as bears have gained weight and slowed down as they approach hibernation.
Thank you for all you do.
Lynn Rogers, Biologist, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center
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