During late summer into fall, black bears enter a period of increased appetite called hyperphagia. This is an evolutionary advantage because it helps them bulk up before winter when food is often scarce. In winter their metabolisms slow down and they live off their reserves of fat (this is called hibernation or winter sleep).
Most of the time, black bears get their needed calories via natural food sources like grubs, berries, and carrion, but if they can’t get enough of these natural foods, if they’re not easy enough to come by, or if they’re not as tasty or calorie-dense as something else on offer, they may come into conflict with humans.
A black bear’s nose is far better than ours and even 7 times better than a bloodhound’s: it’s said that bears can smell food up to 20 miles away. This means if you’re in bear territory it’s really only a matter of time before you’re visited by your local Yogi.
In Colorado, bears that are deemed “nuisance” bears due to repeatedly visiting human habitation and/or raiding human food sources such as trashcans or bird feeders are tagged and relocated, but too many strikes against them can cause a nuisance bear to be euthanized. Once a bear learns where an easy source of food is, they’ll return to it time and time again.
Don’t be the reason a bear has to be euthanized!
If you live in bear country:
- Stash your trash in a secure location and only put out trashcans the morning of pickup day
- Store extra pet and bird food in a garage, shed, or in your house and not outdoors
- If you encounter a bear within city limits, make lots of noise to scare it away
If you feed birds:
- Consider only feeding while bears are hibernating
- Hang bird feeders at least 10 feet high out of the reach of bears and anything they can climb to access them (FRBC sells an aerial bear-proof feeding station that satisfies this criteria)
- At the very least, take in bird feeders (including hummingbird feeders) at night