‘Bears are starving’ and other claims debunked by Tahoe bear team
Provided / Bill Rozak
GREATER LAKE TAHOE AREA, Calif./Nev. – One of Tahoe’s black bear lies unmoving next to a road as cars march by. A nest of pine needles sits cratered beneath a deck, an urban home to the wild animal. These are realities Tahoe bears face as demonstrated in the Tahoe Interagency Bear Team’s videos, but they are realities the team is working to avoid.
Their most recent effort has been debunking multiple misinformation claims recently circulating the internet and on flyers posted through the Lake Tahoe community. The team is a multi-agency group that includes California Fish and Wildlife, U.S. Forest Service, law enforcement agencies, the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency and others.
Urban Wildlife Biologist with the Nevada Department of Wildlife, Becca Carniello discusses misinformation, “It spreads very quickly and very easily.” And she says if there isn’t any information out there to refute it, people can take it as fact.
Many of the posters were placed in visitor populated areas, in line of sight of those who don’t know any better. Visitors aren’t around long enough to see the consequences and learn from them.
“It’s incredibly damaging to the community,” Carniello says, “because they are the ones who are going to feel the consequences of that.”
In order to avoid those consequences, the bear team has put together the following responses to multiple false claims.
The Claim: Bears Need Human Help Denning During Hibernation
Many have seen photos and videos perpetuating the myth that property owners and residents should allow bears to den under homes and in crawl spaces. Some may have even seen people encourage this unwanted behavior by laying out hay and other materials for bears. But most homeowners don’t even know a bear is under or around their home until it has already established a makeshift den.
Bears can tear out wood and insulation, exposing pipes to freezing temperatures or damaging them in the process. Once a bear gets nice and cozy, Carniello says, “They’re constantly hearing people, smelling people,” and that leads to habituation. It can be difficult to make the bear leave. This increases the chances of human-bear conflict.
Bears have evolved to comfortably survive winter without human help, the biologist explains, “In much colder climates than we have here in the Tahoe Basin.” So, it is very important to board up all crawl spaces around homes to discourage bears from setting up camp and damaging property. The team has provided a video with information and demonstration on securing crawl spaces on their YouTube channel.
The Claim: Bears Are Starving, and People Need to Feed Them
False! Black bears are some of the most resilient and adaptive animals and they can tailor their diet to what is available around them. It is true that bears need A LOT of calories, especially in preparation for winter, but giving them handouts will not set them up to thrive. Carniello likens it to training a dog. It’s a positive reward for the behavior. Unfortunately, the positive reward of the treat and more calorie rich food than their natural environment provides keeps them coming back.
It emboldens them to possibly investigate further by breaking into homes, vehicles, and garbage bins, which Carniello notes is not normal behavior, but “We see it a lot more often in the Tahoe Basin because they have access to food and they become very comfortable.”
This behavior will also condition cubs to do the same and continue the cycle of human-dependent bears. Human food and garbage are not good for bears and can make them sick and damage their teeth, leaving painful abscesses that can lead to death. And more importantly, feeding bears is ILLEGAL in California and Nevada.
Bears instinctively forage on a variety of natural foods including insects, plant material and carrion (dead animals) and have a vital biological role to play in healthy forests, from spreading seeds and fertilizing through their scat to curbing disease and keeping insect populations in check. If people teach bears to search for food in neighborhoods or other developed areas, that key biological role is lost. Even after an incident like the 2021 Caldor Fire, where a huge swath of vegetation burned, wildlife biologists saw bears find natural ways to survive like the resilient omnivores they are.
The Claim: Bears Belong in Neighborhoods
It can be exciting to see a big, beautiful animal like a black bear in a neighborhood, but that is not where they belong. Neighborhoods have roads with cars, which bears must cross in order to seek out unhealthy human food and garbage in developed areas. By allowing bears to comfortably live in or pass through neighborhoods, the chances that they will be struck and killed by vehicles increases immensely. If a bear is in a neighborhood, encourage it to move on by scaring it away so that it can lead a safe and natural life in the forest. For more information on bear-vehicle collisions, TBIT has provided a video on their YouTube channel.
The Claim: Don’t Call the Experts
TIBT is dedicated to creating the best environment for bears to thrive and remain wild in an ever-growing, ever-changing environment like the Lake Tahoe Basin. The team is a collective of bear experts across agencies that study and understand these animals. The team says they have devoted much of their professional lives to ensure the health and well-being of black bear populations for years to come.
Carniello says “We want the best for every bear that we come across.” They strive to provide this by putting out the best science backed information they can. She adds, “We work in these communities, we live in these communities and we really all very much care deeply,” and that’s why they formed the team.
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) and the Nevada Department of Wildlife (NDOW) should be the first point of contact for any bear-related incidents or questions. CDFW and NDOW have dedicated black bear experts who can help navigate any human-bear conflicts.
The team encourages the public to visit the TahoeBears.org website for accurate information about bears and to report bear sightings or incidents. Another helpful website is BearWise.org.
To report bear incidents or conflict in the Lake Tahoe Basin, use the following:
- In California, contact the CDFW at 916-358-2917 or report online using the Wildlife Incident Reporting (WIR) System.
- Non-emergency bear collisions in California State Parks can be reported to public dispatch at 916-358-1300.
- In Nevada, contact NDOW at 775-688-BEAR (2327).
- If the issue is an emergency, call the local sheriff’s department or 911.
The Tahoe Interagency Bear Team contributed to this story.
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