There has been a small bear with a cub (was two) roaming our neighborhood and they came by again last night. No biggie, the cub couldn’t get the bag out of the trash can and they were nervous enough to spend an hour in a tree before moving on when they knew I was paying attention.

The NDOW part? The bear has a tracking collar and I thought I saw one on a cub previously, probably the one that disappeared. I haven’t approached NDOW yet, it would probably be a waste of time but I don’t understand their policy of neglect. Even if they weren’t inclined to move the bear, allowing a sow to teach its cubs to become trash bears dooms them even if it’s too late for mama. They have to know what is going on due to the collar, they’ve already captured it at least once and there is no way this is exercising any good care or stewardship. Does anybody understand why they think this is okay?

They monitor the bear in a nearby cave/mine and they must think they are exercising some kind “care” for it but I get the feeling it’s more of a pet for staff biologists to write reports about rather than actually do what is good at least for the cubs and separate them from humans so they can learn to survive in the wild. I don’t know what happened to the other cub but I know they are crossing the highway regularly.

It sucks for everyone.

Or the collar has no ties to NDOW and simply belongs to an independent study that doesn't give a crap the bears are in your neighborhood as they simply just track the data.

About an hour ago I heard a racket outside. When I went out a bear had tipped over the trash can and was pulling out a bag of trash. I yelled at it but it didn't want to leave. I had to get loud and walked toward it. It backed off but still tried  to come back.a couple of times. I had to pu Attached File
t the can in the garage.

I tried to look up the NRS to see what the law is here on bear spray. My wife walks a few miles a day and that kind of spooked her, she is a little nervous about walking now. I have been trying to get her to carry because of the cats but now I think she would at least carry the spray.

I’d be more worried about the cats just because I don’t think the bears are dangerous. I haven’t heard of any cat attacks either but you certainly don’t want to be the first. I would also treat the walks as an important part of healthy living. Stopping that can be a bit of risk in itself, it just catches up with you slower. I’d do what you could to encourage it.

I heard they may have a trapper after the bear but haven’t seen any placed. I’ll try to find out.

Back before the covid I used to get out on guzzlers with NDOW. I have talked with a lot of biologists. I was asking a couple why they don't list lions as varmints again. The season is year round and I have never heard of a quota being met. The biggest reason seemed to be do gooders.

I think they are the reason the try not to euthanize bears. If they trap them they have to be released somewhere else and then they are a problem to those people. Most biologists want to see wildlife in abundance but when they become a problem and should be dealt with NDOW is kind of over a barrel.

The little varmint hit the neighbors up the hill later and scattered trash all over. It can't be the same bear you have. I hope they solve your problem. Guess we will just have to put up with this one.

maybe talk to ndow...
who knows what kind of monitoring they are doing on the collars.
this may have already been a problem bear that they captured collared and moved.

Neighbor says the missing cub was hit on the highway.

Did you talk to NDOW?

No.

Sounds like the neighborhood needs to secure its trash.  If NDOW removes these bears, there will just be more that move into the area and cause the same problems.  If you live in the human/bear interface its time to get a bear box and limit the other temptations on your property.

The county started coming up here to pick up trash a few years ago. They supply the herby curbies. They're not bear proof. We can keep ours in the garage in the cool part of the year but in the summer it's a no go.

My neighbor doesn't have a garage. The bear got into his herby curby before morning and another guy's about a mile up the road. The neighbor doesn't want it euthanised.

Next time I get a chance I'll talk to the area biologist.

The neighborhood is mostly senior to very senior citizens on fixed incomes and many residences are modular homes that may not even have a garage. It’s a county ordinance that a residence with water service must also have trash service. It was unenforceable until recently because the county utilities didn't operate in the area and the one tweaker who did finally imploded. For a while the county placed a roll-off where residents could drop off trash but that was a temporary favor to the town; a permanent site for that purpose has to be built to certain standards and there simply isn’t a location where it was possible. Then another guy showed up out of the blue from Fallon until one of the residents found him on the sex offender registry and followed him around with fliers and half his customers quit so he did too.

It was back to the temporary solution but time to find a permanent solution which was for the GID (water board, now also solid waste) to handle it. As provided for under NRS, the county granted that authority and now everyone has a herby curby for the bears to raid. Bear boxes aren’t happening.

That's what they said at Tahoe too, its well proven to improve the problem.

That look on your face when you realize you still have NDOW dispatch’s number in your phone with a note about Heather the bear biologist…

I’ll keep my powder dry this time. I doubt those bears can be saved. They hit the neighborhood again.

Look at NDOW’s website, they take the attitude that if you are not in the center of a city then you are encroaching on them, i.e. you have to put up with it or provide the solution. That’s not reasonable out here and I’m very familiar with Tahoe including their dirty little secrets.

Passed a mess on the highway this morning, probably the other cub.

Edit: it’s a dog.