Author explains bear behavior

By Linda Bell
Correspondent

Local black bears don't know much about the "rural-urban interface." What they do know is that they have to survive six months of hibernation each year on fat stored during summer. Following their noses can land them in a Fort Collins back yard just as readily as on a campground cooler.

Lots of people in almost every imaginable setting are now having issues with bears, says Buckhorn area author Linda Masterson, who wrote "Living with Bears." That isn't because there are more bears, she said, it's because there are so many more people living closer to where bears normally live --and bears have big territories.

"It's a wonder our paths don't cross more often," she said.

Masterson will be speaking at Red Feather Lakes Library on Aug. 25 at 2 p.m. on "Bear Essentials, a Guide to Living in Bear County." She said she spent almost five years researching this book nationally after she became a Bear Aware volunteer with the Colorado Division of Wildlife in 2001. The book, published in 2006, is available in almost every national park in the United States and Canada located in "bear country."

While filled with funny tips like this one found in the Yosemite employee suggestion box for reducing human-bear conflicts--"dart and tranquilize the offending human and relocate outside the park"--to stories from "Bear Behavior Modification School," the book gently reminds the reader that for every "problem bear" tagged by wildlife officers, there is most likely a "problem person" in its memory bank, sometimes going back several generations.

Masterson worked with Crystal Lakes residents near Red Feather Lakes to set up their successful Bear Aware program with the DOW in 2005, and since then bear incursion incidences have fallen from more than 100 per year to zero so far this summer.

Using many case studies from all over the United States and Canada, Masterson shares a wealth of knowledge about bear behavior and biology, along with what works and what doesn't to deter bears from opening a trailer or car as if it were a pantry, getting into a home, trashing a tent and camping equipment, or meeting hikers on the trail.

Besides being extremely informative and amusing, most of all, Masterson's book shows respect for the normally gentle and intelligent Ursus Americanus which roamed the North American continent long before humans came along to share its territory, tempt it with garbage or bird seed, and kill it for meat, pelt and sport.

Bears are just another part of a finely tuned ecosystem, Masterson said. "They are smart and opportunistic, and they work hard to stay alive," she said. "But they are also discerning--like the bear that opened a freezer and made off with all the Häagen-Dazs and left the store brand ice cream behind. We can all identify with that true story."