Bears and Other Predators Invade U.S. Neighborhoods

Popular Mechanics ^ | July 2009 | Erin McCarthy

[jazusamo]

As once-threatened animal populations including black bears, mountain lions and alligators rebound and people move into former wildlands, predators are showing up precisely where they don't belong: in backyards. And the wildlife isn't as afraid of us as we might think. Welcome to the food chain.

It was the perfect ending to a perfect afternoon. Gary Mann and his girlfriend Helen were watching the sun go down after a satisfying day clearing brush in the backyard of Mann’s home in Sutter Creek, Calif. A pile of branches and twigs was burning merrily, throwing shadows into the growing darkness as the couple’s three dogs—a 50-pound Shar-Pei named Tigger and a pair of Rottweiler mixes, Takota and Tenaya—played at their feet.

Mann’s home is the kind of place nature lovers dream of. The house is set back from the road on a densely wooded, 10-acre parcel bordered by government land and private property; wild turkeys and deer—up to a dozen at a time—wander through daily. Beyond the backyard lawn, 80 feet from the house, ponderosa and oak grow thickly on the steep slopes of a hill.

That February night, Helen heard crackling and snapping of underbrush and saw something large moving along the edge of the trees. When Tigger went to investigate, with Takota close behind, Mann didn’t stop them, even though he knew mountain lions roamed the area. One had peered through his neighbor’s window, scaring the woman inside, and another neighbor had recently seen a big male lion in Mann’s driveway. “The lions come in pretty far,” Mann says. “Common sense would have said, don’t let the dogs go. But I’ve been living up here for eight years, and it’s rare that they attack dogs.”

Suddenly, the couple heard Tigger “screaming for her life,” Mann says. When he ran down to the edge of the woods, he could only see shadows and fleeting movement in the thick underbrush. Whatever was attacking the Shar-Pei growled at him. Takota rushed in, and then it was over—the animal released Tigger and took off. “We think Takota scared it,” Mann says. “It all happened in about 10 seconds.”

Tigger’s injuries were serious. The skin over her head had been split open to the bone, her left eye almost torn out. Deep claw marks ran down her back. Mann held the wounds closed as he and Helen rushed Tigger to the vet, who confirmed that the injuries had been caused by a mountain lion.

Tigger survived, but since the incident Mann has kept the dogs out of the woods. “I’m still here and the lion is still here,” he says. “My neighbors said it was up at their property two nights ago. To attack a dog near a house when two adults are out in the yard with a fire going—that’s when you have to start worrying. There are lots of kids just a couple of blocks from here.”

When Europeans settled the New World, they dealt with predators by showing them the business end of a gun. Wherever pioneers settled, populations of large predators—mountain lions, bears, wolves, alligators—plummeted or disappeared entirely. That search-and-destroy mission continued virtually unabated until the rise of the environmental movement in the 1960s and ’70s, when the national attitude began to evolve. People came to believe that what was left of wilderness and its inhabitants should be preserved for future generations.

This ideology has clearly worked: Since the passage of the Endangered Species Act of 1973, 14 species of animals that were on the brink of extinction have recovered. Alligators were removed from the list in 1987; gray wolves in 2009. The grizzly bear, confined mostly to Yellowstone National Park in the lower 48 states, was delisted in 2007. As for once heavily hunted mountain lions, some 50,000 of the big cats now inhabit North America, with populations in the United States as far east as North Dakota. Experts predict that lions eventually will reinhabit the Adirondacks in New York, the Maine woods and the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee.

Few people anticipated that rebounding populations would create a new problem: an increase in animal attacks as predators returned to former ranges now occupied by humans. In August 2002, a black bear killed a 5-month-old girl in the Catskills, a hundred miles northwest of New York City; the baby had been sleeping in a carriage on the porch. In January 2004, a mountain lion killed a male bicyclist in Whiting Ranch Wilderness Park in Orange County, Calif., then attacked a 31-year-old woman a few hours later. Other bicyclists managed to save the victim, but not before she sustained serious injuries. In October 2007, an alligator snatched and killed an 83-year-old woman outside her daughter’s home in Savannah, Ga. The next day, her body was found in a pond, hands and a foot missing. And, in May 2008, a coyote bit a 2-year-old girl playing in a Chino Hills, Calif., park and attempted to drag her off.

Though the trend is worrisome, the absolute number of attacks remains small. Fatal black bear attacks on humans have doubled since the late 1970s, increasing from one to just two incidents per year. (About six people are injured each year.) Between 1890 and 2008, there were 110 mountain lion attacks in North America; half of the 20 fatalities resulting from these attacks occurred in the past two decades. Despite an alligator population too large to count, the U.S. had just 391 attacks and 18 fatalities between 1948 and 2005. Coyotes have caused only one known fatality in the U.S.

Still, the relationship between animals and humans is proving to be more complex than simply kill ’em all or love ’em all—even though some of the old, romantic ideas about living at one with nature linger. “If you ask people why they moved where they did, you discover that they moved to be immersed in nature and wildlife,” says Marc Bekoff, professor emeritus of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Colorado–Boulder. “The fastest way to decrease the experience is to start killing the animals.”

Whether homeowners welcome large animals into their neighborhoods or see them as life-threatening intruders, most people recognize that we’ve entered a new era: Predators and humans today often share the same terrain, and their daily routines intersect in ways that challenge conventional ideas about man and nature.

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[jazusamo]

I don’t necessarily hear people whining about the enconters and wanting to elimiate all the predators. We just want to get the balance back to where it should be.

Exactly! It's not about killing all predators indiscriminately, it's about managing their numbers.

Californians passed a referendum in the early '90's protecting cougars so now their numbers have increased to the point they're becoming a problem.

Oregon passed the same law outlawing the use of hounds and baiting bears in (I believe) 1994 that we have here in Washington.

[Eska]

We have tons of bear around the house, both blk & grizz; rural alaska. Common practice is to shoot any bear around the house, and they learn quick. We have so many bear, there are no limits or seasons in our GMU; open all year.

Twice in my life, Ihave had yearling blk bear come in on me like a cat on a rabbit, front quarters down, ears goin like crazy back and forth. Was able to wave/yell the one off, shot the second one. Never forgot those experiences either. Anybody who says blk bear won’t eat people, don’t know of waht they speak.

My boy shot a bear from bait station we set up behind house last month, with his bow, got a thrill.

[Flycatcher]

I agree with your post. It succinctly expresses the "pioneer spirit" that is our American heritage.

Sadly, though, the pioneer spirit is rapidly going the way of the ivory-billed woodpecker. Our nation is producing fewer and fewer "rugged individualists" and more and more entitlement dependents. They now outvote on almost every issue regarding the environment -- be it hunting, fishing, culling, or basic wildlife management.

When America loses its pioneering heritage, we lose America.

[Costumed Vigilante]

If you'd give 'em a picnic basket and a human spine trophy, they'd leave you alone...

[jazusamo]

Thanks, Eska, good post.

It seems there’s more and more people here in the lower 48 that want to live in harmony with bears, cougars, etc. because they’re just cute or beautiful furry animals.

They want animals to enjoy the habitat they had 200 years ago. Of course we have about 300 million people here now so that’s just not realistic.

[woodbutcher1963]

“This is also happening in neighborhoods that have been established for fifty years and more due to the increase in predator numbers.”

This is exactly what is happening here in NH and other places back East. NH was once 80 % cleared for farming. Now it is 80% forest land. The reintroduction of species such as turkeys and moose coupled with the lack of people that now hunt has allowed populations to explode. Along with them come the predators that also adapt to hunting in residential areas.
There are also areas like Long Island, NY that have no predators and are densely populated so that you can not hunt with a gun. They have herds of whitetale deer that number 30-40+. They live on suburban bushes and shrubs. These towns have to hire archery hunters to come in and cull the herd.

[Billthedrill]

And the wildlife isn't as afraid of us as we might think.

Shoot them and eat them. Re-establish the food chain. In the long run it's healthy for both populations.

I'm perfectly serious, although I'd balk at coyote omelets. It doesn't have to be a search-and-destroy sweep depopulating the forest for miles around - it never was in the first place despite some of the silliest anti-gun propaganda imaginable. Establish boundaries and enforce them. If you don't, don't blame the critters who never learned any better than kiddies and puppies for lunch. It truly isn't their fault.

[rstark56]

I know you are trying to be politically corect but lets call it what it is. Men are becoming wimps and passing on these traits to their young. When guys are going to get manicures and pedicures we got problems. When men cannot be strong and protect their families we are doomed. When a guy can’t figure out how to change the oil in the car or even where to check it, we are doomed.

[rstark56]

They are compound bows, thats another hunting method that are good for up to 50 yards. Just call me I’ll hunt for free, they won’t even have to pay me.

[jazusamo]

You’re exactly right.

I believe one of the big problems are some employees of state fish and game departments. Animal rights type people have gone to work for them and some have been there long enough to start influencing policies.

Two of the worst states are Colorado and California in the west, I don’t know about the eastern half of the country.

[stuartcr]

Yes, but all the people moving out to be ‘one’ with nature, are increasing faster than the critters can move...besides, the critters don’t have anywhere to move to usually. They’re still going to reproduce and need food and space.

[Beagle8U]

Anything on my property that eats things I want to eat, or is a threat to anything I like, is on the endangered species list.

It's just a matter of time before I cure it's problem!

[Flycatcher]

Amen!

_{But I never try to be politically correct. That's why I'm a FReeper.}

[Carry_Okie]

BS - it is urban sprawl due to illegal immigration. The OLD Sierra Club was a real enviro group where they wanted to keep the population from exploding. The current Sierra Club is run by the DNC, La Raza etc and they are very pro illegal alien.

I've been doing native habitat restoration for twenty years. If you understood how much hands-on work it takes to produce the kind of environment we took from the Indians you would have more appreciation for what people can do to make the wild more beautiful and productive. Lots of people in nature is NECESSARY for it to be productive. "Nature" as you know it, is a creation of a 19-20th Century industrial society completely alienated from the land. It is a myth designed to force people into habitations controllable by an elite, a terribly destructive philosophy for both people and the land.

[weps4ret]

I live on land in Montana that is bordered on three sides by primitive national forest. I believe we have just about every form of critter there that is capable of consuming all or part of a naked ape. Cougar, Grizzly, Black Bear, Coyotes, Gray Wolves, Bobcat, Lynx, etc.

I would not have it any other way, but I live with the knowledge that the critters are there and I could be a meal if, (although at my age I may be to stringy for them) I am not prepared. They are called predators for a reason.

The Blue State Sheeple should accept they fact they belong at the bottom of the carnivore food chain. They should go willingly to the slaughter.

Gunner

[Androcles]

They want animals to enjoy the habitat they had 200 years ago. Of course we have about 300 million people here now so that’s just not realistic.

Don't be a naysayer. It's perfectly realistic.

We just have to slice the 300 million thinly for our new Bear & panther overlords.

[Polynikes]

My father told me a story about a rancher back home (Montana) who shot a Grizzly that was on his land and was nosing around his horse corral apparently looking for a meal. The rancher shot the bear and buried the carcass.

He thought nothing more about it till F&G showed up asking questions. They tracked the bear to his place with the signal from the bears radio collar. They dug the bear up and used it as evidence to prosecute the rancher for illegally shooting the bear.

The rancher ended up in court spending mucho bucks defending himself almost as if he had shot a human rather than a predatory animal that was threatening livestock. In retrospect he should have cut the collar off, nailed it to a 2x4 and thrown it in the river then SSS.

[Retired COB]

May I suggest the Bennelli 12 gauge autoloader.

Mine's an Ithaca 10 gauge autoloader.

[Androcles]

Anything on my property that eats things I want to eat, or is a threat to anything I like, is on the endangered species list.

I agree with every thing you said.

My problem is that that definition is so broad it includes my wife!

[conservativeharleyguy]

"...We have tons of bear around the house,... My boy shot a bear from bait station we set up behind house..."

Hmmmm... perhaps there's a correlation???? I'm just sayin'.