Conservation Officer Service

Bear Aware

What's the Problem?

Bears come into regular contact with people in B.C., especially black bears because they are more adaptable to humans and human settlement than grizzlies. Black bears live throughout the forests of B.C. and often reside at the forest edge near towns or farms. These bears frequently wander into populated areas drawn by human food and/or garbage.

If people allow these visiting bears to access garbage and other non-natural food sources, they help to create "problem" bears. "Problem" bears are bears "that act on their learned behavior to such an extent that they produce a threat to human safety and property when seeking out human food and/or garbage" (Ciarniello, 1997, p 17).

A problem bear is a dead bear. Every year hundreds of "problem" bears are killed in B.C. as a result of poor human management of non-natural food sources. From 1992 to 1996, approximately 245 grizzlies and 4,246 black bears were shot in British Columbia because of perceived and actual threats to human safety.