We met when he tried to break into my enclosed porch. I could see only the top of his bushy head through the back window — trying to pry open a door that had been jammed all summer. I assumed he was avoiding the front door since it was well lit.
Cowering in the corner, I called 911. “I have a prowler,” I whispered.
When the deputy sheriff arrived, he pointed out the little picnic set out on my driveway — my neighbor’s garbage. I didn’t have a bushy-haired stranger. I had a bear. Scared the bee-hay-soos out of me.
And so began the education of the city girl regarding the country bears.
One must be brave to deal with bears. People seem to forget that they are wild animals and cannot be trained to stay out of the trash. It amazes me when tourists want to chase them down to take pictures.
We know bears eat a lot of nuts and berries, but I learned that if they don’t gain three to four pounds a day, they won’t survive hibernation. Now that’s unfair! They get as fat as they please, take a nap and wake up all svelte and ready to pig out again.
The deputy told me that an early frost destroyed their food, so they were coming off the mountain, hungry and desperate. He gave me several tips on how not to attract a bear, and suggested that I check with local programs that report bear sightings and educate us. Sometimes I wish they could educate the bears; they might prove smarter.
He said that a bear becomes a problem after three incidents. The Department of Wildlife will first try to relocate it to an unpopulated area. Often that’s successful — Albuquerque’s notorious Bear #59 now lives peacefully on the northern shores of Navajo Lake. But if a bear breaks into a house, it will be destroyed. There are no second chances.
One must be strong to deal with bears. The day every trash bin on the street was upturned, there was only non-food garbage in mine, but uprighting it was hard. I wasn’t thinking kindly about bears then. What a nuisance!
Some think it’s a nuisance that calls for extreme measures. A local politician proposed legislation to extend the hunting season. That wasn’t very popular. Shooting a mama bear and leaving her cubs orphaned just ain’t sportin’. In Durango bears are better liked than some people.
I’ve learned that the answer is not in shooting, trapping or relocating bears. The answer is in avoiding bear/human conflict. Humans must change their behavior. We choose to live in the mountains — on their territory. It’s unreasonable for us to move from the city, let the poodle run loose and then demand legislation when the bear eats the poodle.
It took time to teach everyone in the neighborhood that we must take garbage out the morning of collection, never leave food or garbage on the porch, not leave dog food outside, and get rid of the bird feeders, no matter how pretty the hummingbirds are.
The joy of living where we do is that we get to see the wildlife. But we need to be more responsible about protecting it. By protecting wildlife, we protect ourselves. That includes slowing down when driving in wildlife areas, but that’s another column. (You really should have seen the neighbor’s windshield after he hit a deer!)
Finally, one must be flexible to deal with bears. I am not a morning person. But I will drag my garbage out at dawn on collection day to keep a bear from becoming a problem.
But right now, let them sleep. Let me enjoy the winter months when bears crawl into their dens and settle in for the long hibernation. I will gladly suffer their presence if I can have just one season of peace.
Jo Ann Viola Salazar of Durango (joann.salazar@gmail.com) blogs at . EDITOR’S NOTE: This is an online-only column and has not been edited.
