This is the bear that almost walked into
our cabin, and calmly sat behind one of
our hummingbird sets. He'd been conditioned
to people by raiding trash, and probably the
camps of illegals passing through the mountains.
First off, we didn't feed a bear, but on our recent trip to southern Arizona for our high-speed flash hummingbird photography shoots, we were plagued by a black bear that repeatedly destroyed the lodge's feeders where we were staying. Eventually, to help out Mary and I would take down all of the hummingbird feeders each night, and replace them the following morning at around 5:30AM. Made for exhausting days, since we often were working late and 5:30AM came early.
I don't know where else the bear was visiting, but over a few week period we saw the bear several times, and we heard that other homes and lodges in the canyon were having problems, too. So much so that the bear, over time, apparently lost all fear of people. Several times, for example, we were awakened in the middle of the night because we heard the bear on our porch, trying to get into a refrigerator we had there. The refrig was locked, and was bear-proof, provided the bear didn't knock over the refrig. I'd get up, bang open the door, and yell and chase the bear. Over time, its retreat became more and more casual.
One day, at 1PM, after our group had lunch, the bear returned to our porch. Fortunately our cabin door was closed, so the bear didn't walk inside but instead contented itself on a box of mealworms we had for feeding the birds. One of our participants was helping to carry up the remains of our meal and literally almost walked into the bear. It jumped off the porch and walked behind our room where it simply sat down. Several of us followed, and photoed the bear which completely ignored us. Mary called Arizona's Game and Fish, a game officer came, and the bear was tranquilized and removed. We learned later that this bear had been a problem the previous summer and been removed. This was its second, and last offense.
All of us were very upset that the bear had to be destroyed, but I could just imagine if the bear had actually walked into our cabin, had the door been ajar or open as it often was. I can't imagine what may have happened if a family with young kids had been in our cabin, had the door ajar, and had the bear walked inside. Can you imagine if a kid walked in, closed the door behind him, and trapped the bear inside? Obviously, the bear had to go.
Somewhere along the line, however, someone, or many people, had fed the bear. It grew accustomed to humans and food. Worse still, when it first showed up in the canyon and caused some problems Game and Fish were not notified, and they couldn't trap the bear, or use techniques to discourage or frighten the bear. Instead, over time the bear just learned that people weren't a threat and the bear grew increasingly bold, culminating in the scene described above.
So, if you're in bear country, don't feed the bears! If you live in an area that occasionally gets bear problems, address the problem immediately, otherwise it will only be compounded. The Santa Rita's lost a beautiful bear last week, a tragedy that didn't have to be. Please don't compound that problem!
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