Bears love the urban life, to their peril

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. — The habitat of Lake Tahoe bears is not defined by their once expansive range high in the snowy Sierra Nevada mountains or surrounding pine forests. Here, the black bear’s domain can be measured in city blocks.

A year-round supply of garbage has lured bears to the streets that ring this resort area, known for its pristine blue waters, casinos and ski runs.

In settling into the easy life, the Tahoe bear has altered its hibernation cycle, taken to prowling the graveyard shift and grown fatter than your average bear.

The consequences can be deadly for the bears, according to a study in the Journal of Zoology that documents behavioral changes as the bears have adapted to a less-than-wild environment.

The study by Jon Beckmann and Joel Berger of the Wildlife Conservation Society debunked assumptions that the bear population was booming.

Instead, it found bears were moving from the mountains to neighborhoods, highlighting a growing problem across North America as housing creeps into wildlands and animals take advantage.

Historically, black bears in the Tahoe basin roamed up to 150 square miles and weighed 200 to 300 pounds, said Carl Lackey, a wildlife biologist with the Nevada Department of Wildlife who helped with the study.

Not anymore.

"At one point, we had 12 bears within one square mile of a dumpster," Lackey said. "Good ol’ Burger King. Those Whoppers fed some whopper bears. We had several in the 450- to 550-pound range."

For an animal with a 25,000-calorie-a-day diet, dumpster diving is the fastest food available. The bears get their fill in a few hours by covering little ground compared with their wilder counterparts, which spend more than 20 hours a day foraging for berries, nuts and carrion.

Most bears retreat into dens for the winter because of dwindling food supplies. The urban bears, however, have a steady supply of vittles, leading to shorter hibernation periods. Five of the 38 bears studied around Tahoe didn’t even take winter naps.

"They come out once a week — garbage night," Lackey said.

Janeen and Mark White peacefully coexisted with nature until recently. Earlier this month, a bear tore open the bottom half of their metal garage door and raided the garbage.

Two nights later, it returned for a freezer full of frozen fish. The bear overturned the ice box and ate a $400 seafood dinner. It returned the following night, flipped the freezer again and finished off the remaining seafood.

"You gotta wonder what’s keeping them from coming through the front door and going straight for the refrigerator," Mark White said.