Strolling through Rancho San Rafael’s arboretum, one might expect to see colorful dinosaurs and bamboo forests that come alive when the sun sets and the Dragon Lights Festival begins.
But recently, some real-life furry visitors were seen wandering among the paper lantern panda bears. A black bear and her two cubs caused quite a frenzy.
Becca Ewanyk, a game biologist with the Nevada Department of Wildlife, said Reno has seen an uptick in calls reporting bears walking through neighborhoods and rummaging through trash. She said one of the most common reasons bears come to town is to look for food.
Bears are omnivores and eat grasses, berries, nuts, fish, and anything in season. But human food is becoming a larger part of their diet due to a combination of climate and human impacts.
Historically, logging and unregulated hunting pushed out black bears from the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range. Since the 1980s, populations have boomed. But as their natural habitat continues to change, they’re coming into contact more with humans.
While climatic impacts like wildfires displace bears and affect food availability in the short term, by the time spring rolls around, there are plenty of grasses for bears to munch on.
Ewanyk said other environmental factors like drought and low snowpack make accessing food throughout the year difficult, meaning bears have to get creative with their menu.
Food availability is important for bears as they enter hyperphagia, the period where they prepare for hibernation. During fall, bears spend most of their day foraging and can eat up to 25,000 calories a day.
“They're trying to get the most bang for their buck, essentially. So they want to spend the least amount of time foraging to get the most amount of calories as they're preparing,” Ewanyk said.
Black bears have strong noses. When they come into urban areas, they’re likely to get their paws on anything that smells good. Attractants like garbage, bird feeders, and chicken coops offer a buffet of delicious treats.
“They're trying to get the most bang for their buck, essentially. So they want to spend the least amount of time foraging to get the most amount of calories as they're preparing,” said Alanna Garcia, a UNR master's student studying bear ecology and habitat.
She said the Reno-Carson area provides the perfect corridor for bears, leading them straight to neighborhood trash cans and gardens. While this provides easy access when food is limited, it can lead to unexpected run-ins with bears.
“They're at risk of coming into conflict with humans, and most wildlife, including black bears, traditionally do whatever they can to avoid us, unless the resource they're trying to get to is worth it,” said Garcia.
Ewanyk, who was on scene when the mama bear and cubs were reported at San Rafael, said when bears come to town, it’s rarely a public emergency. But to catch a bear, one has to be patient.
“We chased the cubs around for probably a couple of hours; we finally got both of them, just with like 20 minutes before Dragon Lights was supposed to start,” she said.
While getting two rambunctious cubs down from a tree sounds like something out of a cartoon, Ewanyk said getting bears back into their natural habitat presents real challenges.
She said while non-lethal tools like traps, darts, and other methods exist, there are still misconceptions around capturing bears. Ewanyk said implementing non-lethal methods is important for building public trust and keeping bears away from humans.
Since 2001, NDOW has used Karelian dogs to help reduce human-bear conflicts. These dogs are from Finland and are bred to hunt big game. Ewanyk said the dogs also help spark conversation about bear conservation.
According to NDOW, aversive conditioning methods teach bears to associate humans with stressful, unpleasant experiences. Ewanyk said NDOW has also practiced mark-recapture work for more than 30 years and has tagged and released over 900 bears to date.
“Some people think that we are there to harm the bears, or that we kill a lot of bears that we catch, which just isn't true. We release over 90% of the bears that we catch in a year,” Ewanyk said.
Researchers continue to explore reasons why bears might end up in urban areas more frequently and how to balance bear habitat with human spaces.
Garcia said that as many wildlife populations, from birds to bears, are recolonizing their historical natural habitat, they will continue to interact more with urban areas.
“They're beautiful animals that we share the landscape with. But it is also important for their safety and for ours that we do everything we can as humans in this wild land-urban interface to protect the wildlife around us and ourselves,” she said.
Garcia and Ewanyk said there are easy steps individuals can take to help keep bears wild. One example is using bear-resistant trash cans, which can be ordered through Waste Management for an additional $6 per month.
If you see a bear, call NDOW, secure your trash and other attractants. Remember to never feed a bear, keep a safe distance, and make loud sounds to drive them away.
“I hope that people want to preserve these populations so that future generations can also enjoy seeing a wild bear. But it takes a little bit of effort on our part to coexist with them,” Ewarnyk said.
To learn more about what to do during a bear sighting, visit BearWise, a national program focused on bear education, where you can learn more about bear conservation and community-action plans.
