WildEarth Guardians –

Mom bears and their cubs are out in full force now looking for food – this time of year it normally includes flowers and grasses – but it can also include opportunistic choices such as birdseed, BBQ left-overs, and unkempt garbage. These are all deadly choices because once habituated to humans, bears will continue to return and when conflict with people occurs, the bears are euthanized.

Bears are sensitive to all sources of mortality. Most bears die from sport hunters, but they are also killed to protect agribusiness, and increasingly from negative interactions with people who further encroach upon bear habitat and migration corridors.

Unfortunately, even with their vulnerabilities, bear quotas are going up, as we saw recently in Aspen where the Colorado Wildlife Commission increased bear shooting licenses in Aspen by 64%! Carelessness by humans will cause untold deaths for bears in Colorado and New Mexico that could be prevented with easy, precautionary measures.

We know you care about bears and so we are enlisting our supporters to help us. We encourage our members and their friends and colleagues to be mindful of bears — whether you live in an urban area like Boulder, Colorado or Santa Fe, New Mexico, or in the hills where bears live. If you recreate in bear country, be mindful, and remind others to do so too.

Click here for the “Care About Bears” Fact Sheet from WildEarth Guardians

Click here for the story on Aspen’s new bear hunting quota