Page 28 - ARUBA TODAY

A28 SCIENCE
Wednesday 26 september 2018
Is a hunt the answer when bears start getting bolder?

By PAT EATON-ROBB in exurban areas, where
CANTON, Conn. (AP) — there are plenty of woods
Tom Bradley had grown but also homes every acre
accustomed to seeing or two, providing access
black bears walk through to easy food sources, said
his Connecticut neighbor- Tracy Rittenhouse, an as-
hood, but this month he sistant professor of wildlife
was alarmed to find some- ecology at UConn.
thing trying to turn a door- "We have this perfect mix-
knob to enter his house. ture of forest and human
He used his key fob to set houses and the bears are
off his car horn, to scare moving into these places,"
away whatever was in his she said. "It's not people
garage. When he went moving into where bears
outside, he saw a bear and occur, it's bears moving
two cubs that had been into where people occur."
trying to get into his mud- Bears stop by the Steve
room. and Julie Sonlin's home in
"I think what is happening Avon several times a year
is, the bears are learning," and have looked into the
Bradley said. "It was sort of windows, grabbed a bag
a step from going outside of birdseed from the ga-
to get the garbage, to go- rage, even taken a dip in
ing into the garage where their hot tub.
the cans are, and now they "They don't seem to be ag-
are moving into the homes gressive," Steve Sonlin said.
because they have dis- "But they don't seem to be
covered that is where the afraid. They seem to be in-
food is." Bears have been different."
encroaching on humans When alerted to bears en-
in record numbers this year croaching on homes, the
in Connecticut, which has Connecticut environmen-
seen increases in the black tal department tries to dis-
bear population like other suade the animals it cap-
nearby states and is the tures from coming back
only that one does not al- by "hazing" them, shooting
low bear hunting. There In this July 18, 2018 photo provided by Julie Sonlin, a mother black bear and her cubs explore the them with rubber bullets,
have been 24 reports of yard of Steve and Julie Sonlin in Avon, Conn. bean bags or paint balls,
bears breaking into homes Associated Press and exposing them to loud
and businesses in Connect- noises, Rego said.
icut this year, well above Department of Inland Fish- Gov. Phil Murphy barred in their own bedrooms. But, he said, bears are most
the yearly average of eries and Wildlife said the black bear hunting on "We have many cases often rewarded for living
about six, said Paul Rego, a number of complaints usu- state-owned lands and where bears have become near people and seldom
state wildlife biologist. ally correlates to the abun- said the state will pursue very comfortable living face a negative conse-
It's one of several states dance of natural foods, more nonlethal methods close to humans and not quence. He would like Con-
that have been grappling such as nuts and berries. to manage the population, being impressed by bark- necticut to open a hunting
with how best to minimize The state uses a popular such as better garbage ing dogs and yelling peo- season on bears.
encounters between bears fall hunting season to try to management policies. ple," Rego said. Recent legislation to intro-
and humans, including dis- control the growth of the Hunt supporters, just as John Bear encounters are up in duce a bear hunt has failed
cussions of expanded hunts population. But Bob Hum- Rogalo, the vice president some other states, as well. in the legislature, with op-
and improved garbage phrey, a wildlife biologist of the New Jersey State New York has received position from animal rights
management systems. and hunter in the state, said Federation of Sportsmen's 1,282 nuisance bear reports groups.
Maine has the largest black it might be time to consider Clubs, say the hunt has this year, such as the ani- Some fear that without a
bear population on the adding a spring hunt, be- worked to teach bears to mals getting into garbage hunt eventually there will
East Coast at about 36,000 cause the bear population avoid humans and worries or bird feeders, compared be attacks on humans.
animals, but the number of just keeps growing. that trend will be reversed if with 700 a year ago, the Bradley said he has already
nuisance bear complaints New Jersey restarted regu- the hunt is ended. state Department of Envi- witnessed some close calls,
in the state has held about lated bear hunting in 2003 The Florida Fish and Wild- ronmental Conservation. such as recently when a
steady, averaging about after nearly three decades life Conservation Com- Officials believe drought mother bear found herself
500 per year. The Maine without one. But this year, mission provides grants to conditions earlier this sum- and her cubs between a
counties, mostly for bear- mer, which led to fewer neighbor's yard with a bark-
resistant trash containers. berries, may be a factor. ing dog and another with a
Some of that grant money But drought wasn't an is- child playing in it. He alert-
came from fees raised from sue in Connecticut, Rego ed the child's mother, he
a 2015 bear hunt, the only said. A study last year by said, and she took her child
one the state has held in the University of Connecti- back inside the house.
more than two decade. cut showed the bears are "It's scary," he said. "Sooner
In recent months, bears actually choosing to make or later, some child, some
in Connecticut's suburbs their homes near people. elderly person, some dog is
have shredded a car's inte- As the bear population going to walk out between
rior, wandered into a liquor grows, the animals are find- a bear and her cub and it's
store, even woken residents ing perfect living conditions going to be a disaster."q