Urban Black Bear Conservation in the Tahoe Basin

The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) is working in Yosemite National Park and the Lake Tahoe Basin, to address threats to black bears from rapid ex-urban growth in this region. 

The Human Aspect
In Nevada, as in much of western North America, wild lands and wildlife face continuing pressure from rampant suburban and exurban growth.  In addition, lack of regulations on the deliberate or non-intentional feeding of wildlife (e.g. garbage) increases the likelihood of human/black bear interactions.

Threats
Since 1 July 1997, in the Tahoe Basin, all of the sixty-two black bear deaths with a known cause were due to human activities, despite the continued protected status of bears in Nevada. Bears in the Lake Tahoe Basin have experienced a 15-fold increase in their annual mortality rate due to vehicles over the last decade.  And current fragmentation of the landscape by urban development and associated roads, threatens to further isolate bear populations in these urban-altered landscapes. 

WCS Activities
The principle objectives of the WCS Urban Black Bear Project are to assess how bears navigate urban areas and to identify critical movement corridors and linkage areas inside these human-altered landscapes through the use of global positioning system (GPS) collars.  These GPS collars provide accurate determinations of each collared bear’s location several times a day, which WCS researchers can use to discern how bears and other large carnivores move through urban landscapes.  By identifying conflict areas between carnivores and human uses of the landscape, this project will facilitate coordination amongst biologists and others working with carnivores in the region to establish sound urban planning that will take into consideration the spatial needs of large carnivores.  Through this project, WCS continues its involvement in wildlife conservation in the region, specifically in helping to prioritize conservation planning and to engage both private landowners and other key constituencies in conservation efforts.

Important Next Steps
• Work with the Nevada Department of Wildlife (NDOW) to identify priority areas
   for the maintenance of connectivity within the urban-interface areas of the Tahoe
   Basin.
• Conduct research on mortality rates, movement patterns, and behavior of bears
   in response to human disturbances in the region to inform regional conservation
   planning efforts.
• Partner with NDOW, Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, and other NGO’s to use data
   from GPS collar studies of bears to affect urban planning.
• Attend workshops of carnivore biologists in agencies, universities, and
   conservation organizations to foster communication and coordination of research
   and conservation activities.

Selected and representative publications (to receive a copy)

Peer-reviewed journal publications
Beckmann, J. P., and C. W. Lackey.  2004.  Are desert basins effective barriers
     to movements of relocated black bears (Ursus americanus)?  Western North
     American Naturalist: In Press.
Beckmann, J. P., and J. Berger.  2003.  Rapid ecological and behavioural changes
     in carnivores: the responses of black bears (Ursus americanus) to altered food.
     Journal of Zoology 261(2):207-212.
Beckmann, J. P., and J. Berger.  2003.  Using black bears (Ursus americanus)
     to test ideal-free distribution models experimentally.  Journal of Mammalogy
     84(2):594-606.
Johnson, J., J. P. Beckmann, and L. W. Oring.  2003.  Diurnal and nocturnal behavior of
     breeding American Avocets.  Wilson Bulletin 115(2): 176-185.

Press reports
The Los Angeles Times: “Fatter than the average bear, thanks to junk food”.
     1 December 2003 (Julie Cart).
Associated Press News Wire: “Study: trash-eating bears at risk of death”.
     28 November 2003
National Geographic News: “Black bears efficiently adapt to city living, study
     says”.  26 November 2003 (John Roach).