Bears avoid residential neighborhoods in response to the experimental reduction of anthropogenic attractants

Introduction: Urbanization is an extreme form of land use alteration, with human development driving changes in the distribution of resources available to wildlife. Some large carnivores have learned to exploit anthropogenic food resources in urban development, resulting in human-carnivore conflict that can have detrimental impacts to people and carnivores, as exemplified by American black bears. Management agencies commonly promote the use of bear-resistant garbage containers for reducing conflicts, but little is known about the actual behavioral responses of bears to this intervention.

Methods: To understand whether black bears alter their behavior in response to changes in residential waste management, we investigated patterns of bear behavior in Durango, Colorado, where anthropogenic attractants were experimentally manipulated. Using location data from collared black bears, we modeled resource selection and movement in response to areas that had received bear-resistant garbage containers compared to those that did not.

Results: Bears avoided residential areas where garbage availability had been reduced, and this avoidance response increased over subsequent years, potentially suggesting that bears were learning from the management intervention. Bear movement rates, however, were not notably affected by the garbage reduction.

Discussion: Our findings highlight the importance of reducing the availability of anthropogenic attractants for changing bear behavior and reducing risk of urban human-bear conflict, and that these responses can strengthen over time as bears learn from the management intervention.