By Joey Livingston
With spring upon us, Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) reminds residents and visitors that black bears are emerging from their dens and are looking for food.
As of April 22, CPW had already received 98 reports of bear activity in 22 Colorado counties this year (compared to 127 reports in 22 counties last year), and that number is expected to increase substantially in the coming months.
As bear activity increases, wildlife officials urge residents to secure any and all food and scent attractants. Bears should not eat from trash receptacles, bird feeders or other human-provided food sources around homes or businesses.
“Every time a bear gets food from or near humans, whether from a bird feeder, a hummingbird feeder, or trash, it teaches the bear that people equal food,” said Tim Kroening, area wildlife manager for the Colorado Springs area. “Bears are extremely intelligent and we can’t unteach a bear that becomes habituated to a human-provided food source. It is vital that we as humans take responsibility to prevent them from learning this in the first place by keeping food sources secured.”
The first bears to emerge from their winter dens are typically males (boars), followed by females (sows) that did not give birth to cubs over the winter. The last bears to emerge from winter dens are the females who gave birth to this year’s cubs, usually in late April.
Early-season natural food sources for bears include grasses, aspen buds and other vegetative matter that is beginning to sprout. Those gentle food sources, the first crops available to them, help a bear’s digestive system and metabolism adjust back to normal after not consuming anything for months.
“Their bodies need to adjust to the fact that they haven’t consumed anything for up to five or six months,” said Mark Vieira, CPW’s Carnivore and Furbearer Program manager. “There is a phase in the spring called ‘walking hibernation’ that refers to bears who are out on the landscape moving slowly and eating almost exclusively vegetative material that starts to pass through their system to get their bodies ready for early summer food sources. That is when they will move back into the typical omnivore diet that we see bears eating the rest of the year.”
More than 90 percent of a bear’s natural diet is grasses, berries, fruits, nuts and plants — native crops dependent on moisture.
Wildlife officials monitor weather patterns in the spring and summer to help determine what natural forage will be available in the summer and fall.
Data shows there are fewer human-bear incidents and conflicts in years with good moisture and abundant natural food sources.
Though most human-bear interactions occur in the late summer and fall months, a late frost or prolonged dry weather could lead to localized natural food failures and a rise in human-bear conflicts. A lack of natural food availability pushes black bears to be more persistent in their search for human-associated food sources. Being BearWise not only protects your home and property, but it can save a bear’s life.
Starting with proper bear-prepared practices in the spring may help prevent bears from discovering your home or neighborhood as a food source that they will return to throughout the year.
As a member of BearWise, CPW encourages everyone to share BearWise information with their neighbors and communities to help prevent conflicts with bears. CPW asks all residents and visitors to help save Colorado’s bears by being actively bear prepared throughout the year.
Human-bear conflicts are most often traced back to human behavior. Living BearWise is the most effective way to prevent human-caused conflicts with bears.
Joey Livingston writes for Colorado Parks and Wildlife.