The Problems and Solutions for New Jersey's Black Bear Population

The Problems and Solutions for New Jersey's Black Bear Population

REPRINTED FROM HUMANE SOCIETY ARTICLE

	Warren Garst, Colorado State University

After declining precipitously because of habitat loss and over-hunting, New Jersey's bear population has slowly increased in recent decades, although the exact size of the population and the extent of the increase is debated.

At the same time, the human population in New Jersey has exploded; from 1950 to 2000, the state's population has nearly doubled to 8.4 million people. New Jersey now combines a large number of human inhabitants unaccustomed to living near bears with greatly reduced and fragmented bear habitat and natural bear food sources that fluctuate yearly.

Occasional human-bear conflicts under such conditions are inevitable, but many such conflicts can be prevented through common-sense measures. The New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife (DFW) already has a program in place for aversive conditioning of bears who are causing damage or intruding onto properties. The DFW also has the authority to kill individual bears who repeatedly cause problems or are otherwise deemed a threat to human safety.

Hunting Won't Solve the Problem

Reducing the state-wide bear population is neither necessary nor sufficient in reducing bear damage over the long-term. First, black bear numbers are limited by food availability, not predation. Thus, the argument that bears "have no natural predators" and therefore "must be hunted" is false and misleading. Bears are already late to mature and reproduce slowly, factors that make black bear populations especially vulnerable to over-hunting.

Second, human-bear conflicts can take place regardless of the bear population size and regardless of whether bear hunting is allowed. Conflicts generally occur when an individual bear associates humans and human dwellings with food. Though bears generally avoid contact with humans, pet food, garbage, bird feeders, and barbecue grills can attract bears into residents' yards. Once a bear has found food in your yard:#151;or in your neighbor's yard—he'll likely return for more. Bear-proofing, not bear hunting, is the only way to prevent such conflicts.

Evidence from other states suggests that human-bear conflicts may not simply increase with a rise in the bear population. In Minnesota, for example, between 1985 and 2002, the bear population increased from 8,000 to approximately 21,000 bears. During the same period, complaints decreased from 2,859 in 1985 to 625 in 2002. The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources has suggested that the decrease in complaints may have been partly because residents realized that they had to learn to live with bears, and figured out how to avoid most conflicts.

Finally, by definition, conflicts occur where humans live, exactly the areas where hunters are not permitted to shoot. The bears killed in a hunt inhabit areas away from people (such as the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area in New Jersey); these are bears behaving as bears should, and are not the ones causing problems. Hunting bears to reduce human-bear conflicts is like shooting into a crowd of people to reduce crime.

Doughnuts, Guns, and Bears: A Lethal Combination

In the New Jersey hunt, hunters are allowed to "bait" bears on non-federal lands, using human foods such as pastries and cooking grease, as well as animal carcasses to draw bears into shooting range. Baiting is likely to cause more problems than it solves because habituating bears to human food sources teaches them to seek out homes, campgrounds, and other human-related food sources.

How to Effectively Reduce Human-Bear Conflicts

While it is impossible for people to control some factors, such as yearly fluctuations in natural bear foods, homeowners can take common-sense steps to keep their yards and neighborhoods from being attractive to bears.

By bear-proofing garbage containers and otherwise removing and reducing these attractants, residents can largely prevent conflicts from occurring in the first place. If a bear has already become habituated to humans, aversive conditioning can be used to change the bear's behavior. The new state-wide bear feeding ban is a positive step toward preventing conflicts. Immunocontraception—fertility control—may provide an additional non-lethal tool to address conflicts. Still, New Jersey has not come close to exhausting the use of non-lethal, effective options.