Nevada wildlife officials capture and release two bears near Lake Tahoe
Two female black bears, captured in Incline Village Tuesday, were safely released into the Lake Tahoe backcountry Wednesday by the Nevada Department of Wildlife.
The two bears were displaying nuisance behavior related to access to human garbage when caught on July 1. One of the female bears was a 9-year old which was first caught in the Lake Tahoe Basin in 2009. The other bear caught at Incline was a yearling female which had never been captured before by NDOW.
Both bears were released, from separate traps, in a backcountry area of the Lake Tahoe Basin just south of Highway 50 near Spooner Lake Summit.
“We used aversion conditioning on both bears,” said wildlife biologist Carl Lackey. “We were able to tree both bears with the use of a Karelian bear dog. We also employed the use of rubber buckshot and, in the case of the nine year old bear, pepper spray and paintballs. All of this helps provide a “bad” experience for the bear and will hopefully keep them away from humans in the future.”
July 1 marked the beginning of Bear Logic Month in Nevada and the capture and release of the bears quickly illustrated the reason why the special month to promote bear awareness in Nevada is needed. “Last year was a busy one,” said Lackey, “and this year could be even more challenging. To keep bears and humans safe, people need to keep any source of human food away from the bears. Our goal is to keep our bears alive and wild.”
The summer of 2014 is expected to be a busy one for nuisance bear activity in Nevada. The ongoing drought has dried up many natural food sources and bears are expected to greatly expand their search for food in urban interface areas where human sources of garbage can often be found to supplement the black bear’s diet.