Fall means more bears coming into Carson City, surrounding areas looking for food

With winter around the corner, bears are foraging for food this fall as they do every year, with bears coming down from the hills into Carson City and surrounding areas in search of calories to pack on.

Bears will rummage through garbage looking for food as well as foraging through backyard fruit trees, according to the Nevada Department of Wildlife. Bears are typically active and foraging during spring but in fall, black bears experience changes in metabolism that drives the need to consume as many rich calories as possible.

Motivated by signals from nature known as zeitgebers, the bears increase their daily caloric intake from 3,000 calories per day to upwards of 25,000 calories per day, according to NDOW.

Areas most at risk of attracting bears by granting access to garbage and other attractants are the Tahoe Basin, west Carson City and the foothill areas of Douglas and Washoe counties.

This metabolic spike is an important signal to the bear to bulk up and gain the fat that will sustain the animal through hibernation and periods of lean food sources. Scientists estimate that black bears may forage as many as 20 hours a day at this time.

During this transition, residents in bear country are asked to diligently manage food, garbage and other attractants around the home and yard in order to avoid attracting bears. NDOW recognizes that bears rummaging through garbage or eating apples in backyards may be perceived as a concern and possibly frightening.

However, it is the responsibility of people, while living or recreating in bear habitat, to remove these attractants before further steps are taken by NDOW, according to NDOW's Living with Bears webpage.

By allowing a bear access to your trash, even just once, you are rewarding that behavior and it will revisit your home. Bears may become human-habituated and human-food conditioned, which often times leads them into conflict with people. They may sometimes get to the point where they constitute a public safety risk and have to be killed to avoid a dangerous encounter. This is not fair to the bear. Living in bear country is unique and requires year round responsibility.

Here are things to know:
— Bears have a sense of smell seven times stronger than a bloodhound and eyesight as good as a human's
— Any scent, especially one of odorous foods like fish or other meats, may attract a bear to your home and yard
— Remove bird feeders completely until later in the year
— Remove fallen fruit off the ground promptly
— Use bear-resistant garbage cans and wait to set trash out until the day of pick up
— Store pet food inside
— Do not leave food or other scented items in your car
— Bears fed intentionally or unintentionally by people may become bold and aggressive. They may be killed if they become a threat to public safety or cause property damage.

In the rare event a bear breaks into your home, move to a safe location and contact local authorities. Wildlife experts caution against directly confronting the bear or blocking the bear's escape route.

Whether you are living or recreating in bears country you should know how to act in a bear encounter. Keep in mind that bears exhibit stress behaviors which indicate their anxiety and preference to avoid conflict with you. These are not necessarily signs of an aggressive bear, according to NDOW.

— Moaning and woofing while avoiding direct eye contact with you.
— Clacking of their teeth and smacking of their jaws.
— Stomping on their front feet and false charges which stop short of making contact with you.

In most cases these behaviors are the bears way of telling you that you are too close. Back up and leave the area. Although black bears very rarely attack people, those attacks have increased in number over the last 20-30 years. Knowing how to behave in an encounter will help keep you and your loved ones safe.

If you have question or if your safety is at risk, or if you have an encounter with a black bear or a mountain lion, or if an attack occurs, contact the Department of Wildlife's Dispatch office at (775) 688-1331 or (775) 688-1332. If for any reason you are unable to contact dispatch, please contact your local police or sheriff's office, or the Nevada Highway Patrol, and ask them to reach one of our wardens.

NDOW also has a BEAR Hotline at 775-688-BEAR wired directly into NDOW’s Dispatch Center in Reno. Normal business hours are 6 a.m. until 11 p.m. The hotline is for those who are experiencing conflicts with bears after removal of all human attractants.