Officials urging residents not to feed the wild animals
The Chattanooga region’s largest predator, the black bear, is out and about this time of year and wildlife officials say it’s important to avoid giving them handouts that could lead to a death sentence for the increasingly numerous beasts.
Wildlife officials in Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia and North Carolina say bear populations in recent years are rising. With the arrival of summer, officials say people should be especially careful because many of the bears they could see are hungry, inexperienced young males seeking territory and food.
Many people are familiar with the typical Appalachian postcard scene where people are stopped in cars along a winding mountain road with seemingly friendly black bears begging humans for handouts of food.
But that’s exactly what people should not do.
And these sightings, and instances where people leave pet food outside or are actively feeding bears, are one of the leading reasons wildlife authorities are forced to euthanize bears.
The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency estimates the black bear population at around 4,000. While there have been no recorded attacks in the state this year, bear sightings on the Cumberland Plateau are becoming more frequent.
A sighting in Cookeville gained statewide attention recently because of the proximity of the bear to a large human population.
“We know it’s going to happen,” TWRA spokeswoman Mime Barnes said. “We just never know what city or town it’s going to be in. They’re out looking for new territory and don’t know where they’re going. They don’t mean to come across humans.”
In North Georgia, black bears are most common in the eastern mountainous counties in the Blue Ridge Mountains, but they show up all over the state and their numbers are increasing. Georgia has an estimated population of about 2,200 black bears.
Black bears in Alabama, historically, occurred mostly in the southwest portion of the state around Mobile and appear to be a Florida subspecies of black bear, according to the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources.
But in recent years, black bears have steadily moved from Northwest Georgia into Northeast Alabama. These bears, the same ones that occur in Tennessee and Georgia, are a different subspecies known as the American Black Bear. The two varieties look very similar, officials said.
So how do bears wind up in backyards? TWRA officials say the issue is typically human related.
The smell of grease on a grill, ripe vegetables in a garden, trash and bird feeders not only attract bears looking for new territory, they provide effortless meals.
Once a bear gets an easy meal, it doesn’t forget. The bears quickly become habituated to the convenience of human food and don’t go back to their normal diet.
Bears do not naturally appear in trashcans or a person’s backyard in the middle of town. Bears showing those behaviors have likely either been directly fed or have eaten improperly stored garbage or pet food, according to TWRA officials.
What is so wrong with feeding bears? “We do have the adage ‘a fed bear is a dead bear,’” Barnes said. “Bears habituated to human foods are the most dangerous bears on the landscape. They become so habituated that they will never turn back to eating normal food because they see what easy calories there are in our foods and how easily accessible they are. Most people say, ‘why can’t you just move it?’”
Well, finding a place to move a bear that is habituated isn’t an easy task, Barnes said. There’s also a lot to be taken into consideration, Putnam County wildlife officer Mike Beaty added.
“Relocating a conditioned, dangerous bear to another area just moves the dangerous bear, and this isn’t an option,” Beaty said. Bears will travel impressive distances to return to an area where they easily found food.
Officials also take several things into consideration when relocating, including females with cubs, the number of times a bear has caused an issue, the level of aggressiveness, the location and the nuisance concern itself. Cherokee National Forest and the National Park Service don’t accept bears that have become habituated to a human diet because those bears become dangerous to the general population.
“We can’t just move it to another part of Tennessee,” Barnes said. “Then, it’s a dangerous bear to someone else. It’s pretty inhumane for the bear, too. They really have a hard time when they’re moved.”
TWRA Region 3 biologist Ben Layton added, “Euthanasia isn’t our goal, and it’s disconcerting when we reach this level. Our goal is helping people understand that human behavior most often causes nuisance bear issues.”