How to Coexist Respectfully with Black Bears

by Morganin Action and Awareness, Exploring Nature!on Posted on

For me, having the fortune of living in a neighborhood with wildlife is an incredible experience! In fact, moving to the neighborhood I’m in now was probably a catalyst for my wildlife interests. My neighbors and I get the pleasure of sharing our area with Bobcats, Coyotes, California Mule Deer, Striped Racers (Masticophis lateralis), a variety of birds, and so many more! Every year around summertime though, is when we start to encounter a few more American Black Bears (Ursus americanus) than usual. The number of bears coming down the mountain seems to increase every year, perhaps as finding food and water becomes more difficult with the ongoing drought.

The species is able to inhabit a wide variety of habitats across North America. These include forests, montane, and chaparral habitats. Contrary to their name, Black Bears can be a wide variety of colors; from black, to brown, to blonde.

There are currently 16 recognized subspecies, though not all are recognized by genetic studies. The Eastern Black Bear (U. a. americanus) has a range spanning much of Eastern Canada and the Eastern United States. On the central coast of British Columbia, Canda, there’s U. a. kermodei, the Kermode Bear or Spirit Bear. About 10% of this subspecies is known to have white to cream colored fur. The other 90% are thought to be regular-colored black bears. In the mountain ranges of Southern California, California’s Central Valley, and parts of Southern Oregon, there is the California Black Bear (U. a. californiensis). This subspecies is known to thrive in temperate rain forest habitats in their northern range and chaparral scrubland in the southern regions. Their fur is usually black, but can also be cinnamon-brown. This subspecies is likely the one I encounter in my neighborhood.

    Three subspecies of the American Black Bear

    As they occupy such a large range of North America, the omnivorous diets of black bears will vary by region and by the season. Bears living along the Pacific Coast have access to salmon in the fall when the salmon begin their migration to freshwater to breed. Bears will gorge themselves on these fish as they swim upstream just before they go into hibernation. As far as other animals go for prey, black bears favor insects such as bees, ants, and their larvae. Though they normally don’t hunt for live prey, black bear diets in the spring can include deer fawn and newborn ungulates (like elk and moose). Upon emerging from hibernation in the spring, they’ll also feed on carrion left over from winter. Up to 85% of their diet consists of plant matter though, like berries, roots, grasses, seeds, and nuts. Black bears are also known distributors of acorns, even raiding the acorn caches of squirrels. Bears are also lovers of honey.

    The historical range of the American Black Bear has certainly decreased over the years. Once inhabiting the majority of North America, their range has become more concentrated to the (largely) undisturbed forests of most U.S. states and Canadian Provinces. However, black bear populations have seemed to be increasing, especially in residential areas, thanks to 24/7 access to food and water there. California in fact, has the largest black bear population in the contiguous United States, between 25,000-35,000 individuals.

    American Black Bear Range
    The dark red areas represent the current range of the species. The pink areas indicate regions where local extinctions (extirpation) occurred. In other words, areas that once hosted the species but no longer do.
    Map from the IUCN Red List

    Living in the mountains of Southern California, human inhabitants get the pleasure, or maybe displeasure, of living with bears. To me, they are beautiful, respectable creatures. Some may see them as a nuisance; flipping over trashcans and leaving you to pick up the emptied food scraps and whatnot that’s been sprawled across your driveway or along the curb. Trust me, my family and I have been there. Getting out of the garage to go to school in the morning only to find a bear spilled trash all over our driveway was not a fun experience…

    Bears loved our trash, but that wasn’t a good thing. Eating trash is unhealthy for bears, encourages them to come down the mountain to look for unnatural food sources, and can be dangerous. They get closer to roads where they can get hit by a speeding car, or get into a potentially dangerous interaction with a person or pet. Bears that continuously enter residential areas can be relocated, or even euthanized if the problem continues. While I love seeing bears move about my house on the security cameras, I want them to be safe more than anything else.

    Last summer, a bear was walking around my house and decided to leave scat in the front yard. The next day, I noticed visible pieces of trash in the scat. Concerned and curious, I dissected the scat much to my parents’ apprehension.

    As I dissected the scat, I wondered if the bear had consumed the trash on the nearby hiking trail or from a trashcan. I scraped away bits of scat containing fig seeds, a natural food source; but my immediate attention went to the long pieces of a condensed paper material, perhaps a paper towel or napkin. I find a piece of plastic bag, a small ball of aluminum foil, a waxy paper material. All this, in the bear’s scat alone. Finally after more scrapping and searching, a ripped up piece of plastic trash bag caught my attention; this bear had gotten into someone’s trashcan. Knowing that this bear had consumed so much trash troubled me. How many other bears had trash in their bodies? Was it bringing the bear discomfort? I decided to take action.

      Contents of American Black Bear scat

      I filed a report with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, mentioning how I was concerned for the health of the bears. A few days later, I got an email back from wildlife biologist Rebecca Barboza. They reminded me of the fantastic opportunity for people to apply for bear-proof trashcans. My family and I have one, and while I am always somewhat disappointed to see a bear’s confused face as they attempt to open up the bin, I know that I am helping the bear out by not letting them eat trash.

      I included an article on applying for a bear-proof trashcan in my neighborhood’s newsletter. Within a few weeks, I began seeing so many more bear-proof trashcans in my neighborhood! I was so happy that my neighbors decided to take action as well to protect the wildlife that we share a space with (and avoid having to pick up their trash after a bear makes a mess of it).

      If you share your neighborhood with bears (or other trash-loving wildlife for that matter), please consider applying for a bear-proof trashcan. The process is as easy as contacting your local trash service provider. Some, if not all, trash services will even offer bear-proof trash cans for free. 

      Please remember to keep wildlife wild. They are best off with as few human interactions as possible. Please do not intentionally feed wildlife or intervene with them. Please treat them with respect.

      Suggested Resources

      Sources used for this article

      Thank you so much to Rebecca Barboza of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife for answering my questions and informing me of the programs out there to help keep American black bears safe.

      A tagged juvenile female bear that visited my house last summer