No Lions, No Tigers, But Lots of Bears

Late on a Sunday night Nancy Comeau is standing behind the grocery store in Bethlehem.

She’s got a shotgun loaded with rubber buckshot.

She’s listening for a black bear in the nearby woods.

A radio collar allows it to be tracked.

BEEP, BEEP, BEEP SOUND.

Comeau is working on bear-control strategies in a project involving Fish and Game, the federal government and Plymouth State University.

“So we’re just waiting to see and we can tell by the signal. It is pretty steady right now so we assume he is feeding. But if it starts to get louder we know then he is coming out towards here.”

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP SOUNDS

The first bear complaints came in the spring.

A bear or two in this White Mountain tourist town of 2,200 is not unusual.

But the bears kept coming.

“We’re pretty confident there are a minimum of 10 animals in town right now which is really a tremendous number of bears in a small community.”

That’s Andy Timmins.

He is a bear expert with Fish and Game.

It is not like there’s a parade down Main Street, but people are seeing bears in their yards.

They are seeing them behind the village grocery store.

But most often they see bears having spectacularly untidy meals around dumpsters.

The police department reports that some people are annoyed and call for help, but most are not frightened.

An officer usually goes to scare the bear off.

Andy Timmins says bears are big but not bad.

Fish and Game says it has been more than 200 years since a bear killed anyone in New Hampshire.

“I would say keep your distance, treat them as a wild, unpredictable animal but do not live your life in fear. They are there for the garbage and the bird seed.”

The garbage and the bird seed.

Why spend time gathering dinky, little berries if there’s good stuff in a dumpster?

Maybe Italian one night.

Perhaps some Chinese the next.

There are even a few people in town who put food out.

Andy Timmins: “It teaches these bears that coming into human environments they get rewarded with easily accessible, often very high quality food.”

Many of the bears here are young, taught by older bears about the fabulous Bethlehem buffet.

Dumpster dining and handouts may be nutritious but Timmins says it is dangerous for the bears.

“Bears that get into in those situations usually end up having higher mortality rates, either they get hit by a motor vehicle, they may be dispatched by an irate homeowner or if it is a bear that becomes real problematic it may have to be destroyed by the department.”

(more sfx of outside noise??)

Back behind the Bethlehem grocery store, Nancy Comeau is researching whether one can teach bears that raiding dumpsters is literally a pain in the butt.

But first the bear has to come out to the dumpster.

“So, then we would give him an opportunity to get out into the open and this is ideal because there is some lighting here. Then I would take the shotgun and give him a shot of rubber buckshot in the butt.”

BEEP BEEP BEEP SOUND

People need to be trained, too.

The Bethlehem Police chief and Fish and Game have asked the town’s Select Board to consider a new ordinance.

Basically it would require secure dumpsters and make it illegal to feed bears.

Police chief Michael Ho-Sing-Loy.

“It is something we should try and work out to live in a little harmony with the animals.”

In the past few years Franconia and Lincoln adopted similar laws.

Gorham adopted one earlier this summer.

BEEP BEEP BEEP

By 11 o’clock the bear is a no-show.

Comeau wonders if he is taking a nap.

It won’t be long before she calls it a day.

Even if the Bethlehem law is adopted the impact won’t be immediate.

It will take time before the bears stop trying to get into dumpsters and no longer visit places where they once got handouts, says Comeau.

“They are very, very smart and they have fantastic memories. So, if they were receiving food in your yard this spring they will be back in your yard next spring to check it out again.”

For NHPR News this is Chris Jensen