Female bear, cub trapped by Nevada wildlife officials in Carson Valley, to be released later
A female black bear and her cub, both having a recently acquired taste for honey, were caught Thursday morning in the Foothill Road area of Carson Valley by the Nevada Department of Wildlife.
The adult female was caught in the trap at around 2 a.m., said Chris Healy, spokesman for the Nevada Department of Wildlife. A trap was set in the area 10 days ago because there were complaints of bears doing damage to bee hives. The female cub was up a tree, above the trap, when biologist Carl Lackey responded.
Lackey tranquilized the female, dragged her out of the trap and placed her under the tree (still tranquilized) where the cub was perched. The cub then came out of the tree and was safely darted. “We’ve used that technique successfully before,” said Lackey in a news release. “By luring the cub from the tree, we can dart it without the bear falling out of the tree and possible getting hurt or killed.”
The older female had been captured before by Lackey, “roughly in the same area” in 2007 and is estimated to be about 14-years-old. “We performed aversive conditioning before and she stayed away seven years. We’ll do it again to her and the cub when we release them and they should get the message to stay away from human activity.”
“We can really make an impression on these bears with aversion conditioning,” said Lackey. “The residents in this area, by cooperating with us and not hindering our bear-saving efforts, are doing what is best for the bears. When we are allowed to do our job and intervene with aversion conditioning techniques we can save bears, and that is our goal.”
Lackey also is working with the owner of the bee hives to strengthen the electric fence that was already in place when the bears first started coming into the area.
Persons needing to report nuisance bear activity can call the NDOW’s Bear Hotline telephone number at (775) 688-BEAR (2327). For information on living with bears persons can go to www.ndow.org and find the ”Bear Logic” page on the web.