ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, May 21, 1996 TAG: 9605210058
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
COLUMN: reporter's notebook
SOURCE: LISA K. GARCIA
It was about 10:30 p.m. May 1 when Dave Nickerson heard his dog's frantic barking and got out of bed to investigate.
He walked downstairs and looked out on his deck to see ... a black bear hanging on to a nearby tree, while balancing on the deck's railing and scooping bird seed from a feeder.
Nickerson said the late-night raider kept bending the bird feeder over until it snapped from its pole.
"He trashed four bird feeders that way," Nickerson said. "They'll eat anything. One of my friends said he saw a bear chewing on a hummingbird feeder."
Residents of the Preston Forest neighborhood outside Blacksburg are eager to enjoy the wildlife in the woods surrounding their Brush Mountain homes. But they found out earlier this month that their generous displays of suet and bird seed attracted more than chickadees or blue jays. They got their very own 180-pound, male black bear.
"This bear had learned how to take down all types of feeders," Nickerson said. "He had a system ... he didn't leave anyone out."
Larry Crane, wildlife biologist with the state Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, captured and relocated the bear. He said the biggest obstacle black bears face is people.
"The best thing to do is to adjust," Crane offered as advice for coexisting with bears.
Adjusting means taking down all the bird, squirrel and deer feeding devices at the first sign of a bear, Crane said. It's also important to bring in the dog- and cat-food dishes at night and wait to put out the trash until the morning of pickup.
Those steps taken, usually the bear will move on to find natural food sources in the woods, Crane said.
Electric fences will easily turn a bear away and protect specific areas, Crane said. He described one Buchanan man - more than 90 years old - who recently reported a bear destroying his bee hives. The man liked having the bear around, but couldn't tolerate the bear's search and destroy mission on the hives. He installed an electric fence.
Crane said bears will always go after hives, not for the honey as most people believe, but for the bee larvae. And, he added, they just love yellow jackets.
But sometimes the only choice for a bear that gets used to seeing people, or ends up in an urban or city area, is to move it, Crane said.
Moving a bear from its home range is usually a last resort, Crane said. Bears are born in February and begin to wander out of their dens this time of year. They are extremely hungry and will pick the easiest food source, which is why they sometimes end up pawing through trash cans.
Crane said he usually tries to move bears about 75 air miles away from an area like Preston Forest. This bear took a trip to a very remote section of the George Washington and Jefferson National Forests after he followed his nose to a dinner of ham and apple pie in the interior of Crane's culvert trap. Crane said the trap is made from culvert pipe used by the highway department and is covered with mesh screen on one end and a door on the other.
Crane drugged the bear after it was trapped and pierced its ear with a metal tag. He pulled a small tooth behind the bear's canine tooth and sent it to lab to be stained. After it's stained, rings in the tooth can be counted - like counting the rings of a tree - to determine the bear's age, Crane said.
The bear also got a tattoo with an identification number. Crane said the ear tag and tattoo help his department track the bear. If he turns up in a residential area again, the game department will take the bear even farther away.
"Not all are trouble bears," Crane said. "Rather than destroy them, we'll give them the benefit of the doubt."
Just 2 percent to 3 percent of bears return to an area after being moved, which Crane said makes the work worthwhile and saves most bears from being destroyed.
Crane, who has been working on managing the state's bear population for the last 20 years, said the bear population has remained fairly stable. He credits the Game Department's work to educate people about bears and a cooperative effort with hunters for the success.
"I enjoy it, I really do," Crane said when asked about his work. "Every day I learn something new from the animals."
Concerns or questions about bears and other wildlife should be directed to the district office for the state Department of Game and Inland Fisheries in Blacksburg at 951-7923 or the regional office in Marion at (540) 783-4860.
LENGTH: Medium: 84 linesby CNB