Abstract
Among the world’s large Carnivores, American black bears (Ursus americanus) are the foremost conservation success story. Populations have been expanding across North America because the species is adaptable and tolerant of living near people, and because management agencies in the U.S. and Canada controlled hunting and other human-sources of mortality. As a result, human–black bear conflicts (damage to property, general nuisance, threat to human safety) have dramatically increased in some areas, making it urgently important to develop and deploy a variety of mitigation tools. Previous studies claimed that legal hunting did not directly reduce conflicts, but they did not evaluate whether hunting controlled conflicts via management of population size. Here, we compared temporal patterns of phoned-in complaints about black bears (total ~63,500) in Minnesota, USA, over 4 decades to corresponding bear population estimates: both doubled during the first decade. We also quantified natural bear foods, and found that large year-to-year fluctuations affected numbers of complaints; however, since this variation is due largely to weather, this factor cannot be managed. Complaints fell sharply when the management agency (1) shifted more responsibility for preventing and mitigating conflicts to the public; and (2) increased hunting pressure to reduce the bear population. This population reduction was more extreme than intended, however, and after hunting pressure was curtailed, population regrowth was slower than anticipated; consequently both population size and complaints remained at relatively low levels statewide for 2 decades (although with local hotspots). These long-term data indicated that conflicts can be kept in tolerable bounds by managing population size through hunting; but due to the bluntness of this instrument and deficiencies and uncertainties in monitoring and manipulating populations, it is wiser to maintain a population at a level where conflicts are socially-acceptable than try to reduce it once it is well beyond that point.
Highlights
The conservation and restoration of some wildlife species, especially Carnivores, has spurred mounting conflicts with humans in many places around the world [1,2,3,4]
We explored models containing the following predictor variables: (1) estimated size of the bear population (POP); (2) yearly numerical rating of bear foods (FOOD); (3) the number of bears removed from the population the previous year through hunter harvest or killing in conflict situations (PREVKILL); and (4) the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (MDNR) nuisance bear policy in effect (POLICY: old or new, pre- and post-1998; categorical variable)
During the 1990s, a noticeable decline occurred in the percent of complaints involving garbage, as educational efforts were directed at better securing this bear attractant; this food source was replaced during the 2000s by birdfeeders, as bird feeding became an increasingly popular summer recreation in northern Minnesota (Fig 2)
Summary
The conservation and restoration of some wildlife species, especially Carnivores, has spurred mounting conflicts with humans in many places around the world [1,2,3,4]. Conversion of forests and unregulated hunting and persecution led to extirpation of this species across large portions of its range by the early 1900s [6,7] This trend was reversed as U.S states and Canadian provinces gained control over unwanted and unsustainable killing, in part by “protecting” the species with big game status [8]. This meant that legal hunting could occur only with a license, and state and provincial agencies regulated the take with various restrictions, and policed other forms of take [9]. Six states opened bear hunting seasons since the early 2000s
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