SPORTS

Avoidable? Black bear put down after humans fed it

Wes Johnson
WJOHNSON@NEWS-LEADER.COM

A healthy 250-pound black bear in Christian County had to be euthanized Monday because someone in the area had been feeding it and it lost its fear of humans, according to state wildlife officials.

MDC officials gave this healthy male black bear a lethal injection after trapping it. It had become a nuisance to humans because someone had been feeding the bear.

The bear had become an ongoing nuisance and a threat to a homeowner in the national forest in the southeast part of the county, according to a Missouri Department of Conservation news release.

MDC regional wildlife supervisor Tim Russell said the bear had repeatedly been seen snooping around a home looking for food because it had been fed before.

“In one instance, it walked up to an open patio door and partially came into the house,” Russell said. “It was following its nose and making decisions with its stomach. Unfortunately, if someone startled it or cornered it, it could take a swipe and cause some damage.”

Russell said MDC worked with the homeowner on ways to deter the bear, such as removing any outside food sources and not leaving trash cans out until the day of pickup.

“We advised they can also shoot a firearm into the air to make noise and scare the bear off, which was done. But it kept coming back.”

MDC declined to identify the homeowner.

According to MDC, the homeowner initially contacted wildlife officials to report the nuisance animal and told staff that she had not fed the bear.

However, the bear continued to visit her home in search of food. The family tried to drive the bear away during previous encounters but the bear kept returning, and even began looking for food at a neighbor’s home.

On June 20, MDC staff captured the bear in a large cage trap placed in the homeowner’s yard. MDC staff noted that the bear showed little agitation toward staff while in the trap. This was not a good sign because it indicated that the bear had lost its fear of humans.

MDC staff confirmed that the bear had been ear-tagged in another part of Christian County as a yearling in 2012, and was among several bears that were previously fed by another homeowner.

According to MDC, the bear could not be relocated to a more remote location because once a bear associates people with food, it will continue to seek sources of food associated with people.

MDC staff removed the trapped bear from the homeowner’s property and then euthanized the animal using sedative and lethal drug injections, similar to how pets are often “put to sleep.”

MDC staff transported the bear to the Department’s Conservation Research Center in Columbia where the MDC wildlife veterinarian will examine the carcass to further assess the bear’s condition.

Russell said an even larger bear had been seen in the same area, but so far had not become a nuisance animal.

Jeff Beringer, an MDC researcher who initially trapped the problem bear in 2012, said he remembered it as being a very health animal. He called the need to euthanize the bear “a sad situation.”

“This stuff is going to happen again as long as people feed bears,” Beringer said. “It’s not worth the short entertainment value you get watching them eat food you put out, knowing they might eventually have to be killed.”

MDC: A fed bear is a dead bear

MDC strongly discourages people from feeding bears or making food available to them. Feeding bears makes the animals lose their fear of being around people and usually results in the bears becoming nuisance animals. According to MDC, a fed bear becomes a dead bear.

MDC offers the following tips to avoid conflicts with black bears:

• Do not feed birds and other wildlife from early spring through late fall, especially in rural areas. This often attracts bears. Bears are much less active during the winter, when supplemental feeding is more important for birds.

• Keep pet food and livestock feed inside secure containers and buildings. The same is true for barbecue grills and other items that smell like food.

• Trash should be kept in secured containers and buildings and put out as close to pick-up time as possible to minimize exposure to hungry bears.

• Campers and floaters should keep campsites clean of food and items that smell like food, pack and keep food in closed containers, place the food containers in secure locations away from the primary campsite, and dispose of garbage immediately.

• Keep bears wild by making encounters with humans a negative experience for the bear. If a bear approaches, scare it away by making loud noises and throwing objects such as rocks at it to help enforce its natural fear of people.

• For problems with a nuisance bear, contact the nearest MDC office or local conservation agent.

For more information about dealing with nuisance bears, visit the MDC website at mdc.mo.gov/node/4607.