Bear League - Lake Tahoe

Lock deadbolts at night

If a bear continues to be a nuisance you can get a depredation permit.

Designated a "no harm no foul,"techniques to remove the bear may include, but are not limited to the use of sound makers, pepper spray, rubber slug shot shells or sling shot projectiles to drive the bear away or haze the bear out of the area.

Bear League executive director Ann Bryant uses paintball gun (she uses chalk balls instead of paint balls) should she need to scare a black bear.

Chemical deterrents such as Pine Sol cleaner and ammonia, scram (a dear and dog repellant).

Electric fences deter bears by providing an electric shock when the animal touches the charged wires

Wired for Bear, Tahoe West Shore
Field Tests Of Potential Polar Bear Repellent | U. Montana

Bears were repelled by chemicals only 2.6% of the time, but spent significantly less time spent at the test sites indicating repellency. __________________________________________
Bear break-in video, Homewood JN 2020

since 2014, at least nine people have been charged at, swiped or mauled by bears in and around homes and businesses on California’s side of Lake Tahoe. Most just get scratches.

In one case, hearing noise in his kitchen at night, a man came downstairs and was confronted by a bear that had broken in,” The bear stood on hind legs and swiped the victim across the head. Victim retreated but re-entered to try and make the bear leave. Bear swiped his stomach and knocked him down before leaving the cabin. 32 staples.”

Bear League executive director Ann Bryant uses paintball gun (she uses chalk balls instead of paint balls) should she need to scare a black bear.

Biologists say trapping and moving habitual bear burglars isn’t usually an option. Biologists in Nevada and California have tried relocating troublesome bears in the past, but the animals either eventually wander back or they just become some other community’s problem.

Read more at: https://www.sacbee.com/news/california/article238546758.html#storylink=cpy

_______________________________________ TAHOE VISTA Again and again, the bear climbed into the Tahoe Vista resident’s pickup and his neighbors’ cars. It broke through a dead-bolted door to get into a neighbor’s home. It acted aggressively when they tried to chase it away, he said. In November, he’d had enough. He got a permit to have the bear killed. Placer County’s trapper parked a cage trap on the man’s lot. In less than 24 hours, the trapper hauled the bear away for good. But that was plenty of time for Tahoe’s vocal and well-organized community of bear activists to spot the trap and share the homeowner’s personal information. Dozens of harassing emails, calls and texts came in.

One local official estimated that bears recently damaged more than 75 homes in a single west shore Tahoe neighborhood. At least one of the homes suffered close to $100,000 in damage. Meanwhile, numerous homeowners have reported coming face to face with bears inside their homes. Newly released state records show some have even been mauled, though none fatally.

Read more at: https://www.sacbee.com/news/california/article238546758.html#storylink=cpy

Black bears, which can range in color from inky black to dirty blonde, are not endangered in California and Nevada, and their numbers are growing in both states. Biologists say Tahoe’s bears, estimated at between 300 and 500 animals, are some of the most densely populated in North America, drawn to the massive amounts of human food and garbage brought to the region by the more than 3 million tourists who visit each year.

The main mission at the North American Bear Center is to educate! This post will do just that as we dispel some common misconceptions and myths about black bears.

Myth 1.) Mother black bears are likely to attack humans in defense of cubs. The truth: this is a highly unlikely behavior from a mother black bear. Mother black bears rarely attack humans, but they do frequently exhibit bluff charge and blustery behavior in defense of their cubs. It is often interpreted as aggression towards humans, but is really a reflection of their own anxiety and fear. There has only been a handful of recorded attacks on humans from a mother black bear defending cubs. Brown bears on the other hand (which dont exist in the Tahoe/Truckee area) will attack humans in defense of cubs, which is mostly likely where this myth comes from. Ely bears researchers have taken screaming cubs from mothers in their dens (only for a brief time to record scientific data) without the mothers attacking. They would slap the ground and act ferocious, but would refuse to make contact with the researchers.

Myth 2.) Mother bears will reject cubs with human scent. The truth: this is completely untrue with bears as it is with other mammals and birds. Human scent does not cause the parents to reject caring for their offspring. Most people probably hear this from their parents (or other adult) at a young age, but the fact is that there isn't any evidence to support this. Although you should never approach and handle a baby wild animal (unless conducting approved research and trained to do so), your human scent will not cause the parents to abandon its young. Wildlife rehabilitators have raised young animals and released them to their parents (or other adults with offspring) with no issues due to human scent.

Myth 3.) Black bears will attack if they sense fear. The truth: no they won’t. Black bear attacks are very rare in general, but fear in humans does not make bears more likely to attack. In fact, most people probably have a primal feeling of fear if they have ever encountered a bear when not expecting it. It is a large and powerful animal that is often portrayed as aggressive and mean; why wouldn't you be fearful in an unexpected encounter? In 1984, Ely bear researchers inadvertently tested whether or not fear provokes an attack from black bears. A researcher tripped and fell flat on his back while trying to move away from a bluff-charging mother black bear. The mother stood over him. He lay petrified, no doubt reeking of fear. His heart raced. After a few long moments eyeball to eyeball, the mother turned and walked back to her cubs. She never touched him.