It’s not unusual to see bears in our area, some of them even getting into homes. For that reason, every year, the Nevada Department of Wildlife (NDOW) sets up traps to catch nuisance bears, which they say helps keep the animals out of neighborhoods.
The traps are basically big metal boxes with sweets to attract bears; you can see some marshmallows and honey, that will attract a bear in. Once they are in and try to reach for those treats, the door comes down, and the bear is trapped.
“The goal of bear trapping is to keep bear from going back into neighborhoods because we don’t want the behavior to escalate and become a problem of public safety risk,” Ashley Sanchez with NDOW said.
NDOW says they only kill the bears if the bears break into homes.
They also say after they catch the bear, they tranquilize them, collect DNA, tag the bear, and then they either release the bear on site or they relocate the bear.
The hope is that the negative experience will keep the bear from coming back to that neighborhood.
Even though NDOW says this is an effort to protect bears and people, some say, bear trapping just isn’t the answer.
“It should fall on the homeowner, not on the bear that is just being a bear and trying to find food sources,” says Staci Baker, a Tahoe Resident.
For more information on bear safety, visit this link here.
