Trap, Tag, and Haze program underway with Tahoe's bears

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - As evidenced by photos on social media, the Lake Tahoe Basin's black bears have emerged from their winter slow-down and slumber. As the bears return, so has the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) as they use a new tool to help manage the human-bear conflict: Trap-Tag-Haze.

This program is creating a growing catalog of the Lake Tahoe bear population as they try to identify as many individual bears as possible. CDFW is building a genetic database of the population, studying its overall health, and whether related bears are passing down problem behaviors from one generation to the next.

Last fall they trapped bears at Fallen Leaf Lake Campground, Meeks Bay, Sugar Pine Point, and Pope Marsh and are now in South Lake Tahoe with the U.S. Forest Services - Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit to check out more bears. Eighteen bears have been trapped to date – four of those being recaptures. Genetic material is collected and each bear is outfitted with an identifying ear tag before release.

Local bear expert Toogee Sielsch posted a notice on the social media forum "Next Door" Saturday to inform the public that the Trap-Tag-Haze process had begun and it is not harming the bears, nor are the bears being relocated outside the Tahoe Basin or euthanized. He said last fall the public reacted based on rumors that the bears were being killed so he was being proactive this year and staying ahead of the situation.

The bears are hazed – but not harmed – upon release to give them a negative human interaction and to see whether the hazing keeps them away from campgrounds, people, and conflict in the future. Hazing typically involves loud noises, firing paintballs, bean bags, or other non-lethal projectiles at the bear.

"We're going to see more of the urban bear," said Sielsch. "The ultimate goal of this program is to help decrease incidents of human/bear conflicts and keep more bears alive longer."

Bears are getting used to human food in garbage cans, at homes, campgrounds, and picnic areas - they have adapted to urban living. In the Tahoe Basin, it is estimated the bear population is about 500.

"This problem in Tahoe is a human food storage issue and a trash issue," said Sarinah Simons, a human-bear specialist with California State Parks Sierra Division. "It is becoming more of a bear learned behavior. They don't behave like wildland bears. We want to document what they are doing."

She said they are working to find out how the bears move across the landscape. The more that is known about their behavior, the less they die.

In 2008, Science Daily shared a study by the Wildlife Conservation Society that showed black bears that live around urban areas weigh more, get pregnant at a younger age, and are more likely to die violent deaths. The group tracked 12 bears over a 10-year period that were living in urban areas around Lake Tahoe, Nevada, and compared them to 10 "wildland" bears that lived in outlying wild areas. The authors found that bears in urbanized areas weighed an average of 30 percent more than bears in wild areas due to a diet heavily supplemented by garbage.

In the following video, Shelly Blair, CDFW’s wildlife biologist for El Dorado and Alpine counties, and Sarinah Simons, California State Parks Sierra District human-bear management specialist, explain the innovative collaboration and scientific work during trapping efforts last fall.