We are working with the CA Department of Fish and Wildlife. It is imperative that all cabin owners go above and beyond to make sure no attractants are left in vehicles or around cabins. We are in the middle of the forest, their natural bear habitat. It only takes one complacent person to begin a cycle of bad bear behavior. We all need to work together. They no longer re-locate bears, they trap and kill them. Hibernation season is upon us, they would like us to give the bear a chance to go into hibernation before proceeding with the last resort of trapping and killing the bear. It is very uncommon for a bear not to hibernate. If a bear has food available, he may not go completely into hibernation. A bear’s metabolism will slow down but is very uncommon to see bear up and moving in the middle of winter.
When closing for the winter, do not leave ANY food in their cabins; including spices or canned goods. Be sure to board up any crawl spaces to your cabin, you can also board windows from the inside. Bears will tear off outside shutters and if they can visually see inside they may break windows to enter, especially if they have received a food reward from doing that in the past. If you’re setting mousetraps, make sure you’re baiting with a substance that doesn’t attract bears.
Here are some more suggestions:
Additional precautions and deterrents include:
• Secure garbage in a garage or shed, purchase bear proof cans
• Clean garbage cans regularly with bleach
• Pour bleach or ammonia over garbage before closing the bag
• Double bag trash
• Freeze particularly smelly foods (bones, bacon grease, banana peels, egg shells, etc.).
• Rinse out recyclables
• Bring in scented candles
• Don’t feed pets outside or store pet food outside
• Take down bird feeders/ hummingbird feeders
• Chest freezers should be moved into houses/ garages
• Clean barbecue grills and store in a garage or shed
• Put ammonia-soaked rags in punctured bags around areas that might be attractive to bears
If you encounter the bear remember to:
• Give the bear lots of room to get away
• MAKE NOISE- air horns, banging pots and pans together, slapping flat sides of 2x4s together, motion detector alarms (Rex the Barking Dog alarm- Amazon.com), soda can ½ full of pebbles or coins (coyote shaker)
• Make yourself look bigger- raise arms, jacket above your head, stomp feet and yell.