A deterrent should prevent undesirable behaviors by turning bears away before a conflict occurs. 

 Where removal of an attractant isn't possible, electric fencing is an effective deterrent to prevent 

 bears from accessing human food sources (garbage, food storage areas, livestock boneyards, 

 etc.)- Rubber bullets and hard plastic slugs are used to educate bears to avoid a particular area, 

 usually when a bear is attracted to a human food source or when a bear becomes habituated to 

 human activities. Dogs are used to deter bears from livestock and from backcountry work 

 camps. 



Aversive Conditioning 



Aversive conditioning is non-lethal bear control used as an alternative to killing or relocating 

 bears that become too closely associated with people. Aversive conditioning should modify 

 previously established undesirable behavior through the use of repellents or deterrents. This 

 conditioning must be repeated until avoidance of people or their property is firmly established. 

 The primary goal of aversive conditioning is to train bears to avoid people and their activities. In 

 recent years, the Wind River Bear Institute has developed the Partners in Life Program with a 

 goal of providing for coexistence of humans and bears by preventing and reducing conflicts. The 

 program uses highly trained Karelian bear dogs in combination with other deterrents (rubber 

 bullets, cracker shell, etc.) to teach bears to change their undesirable behaviors. Problem bears 

 are taught to behave properly and the public is educated to behave in a manner that prevents bear 

 problems and their reoccurrence. The program has been used successfiilly on both black and 

 grizzly bears in Glacier National Park, Yosemite National Park, several Canadian parks, and on 

 private and public land in northwestern Montana and southwestern Alberta. FWP preferred 

 approach will be to expand this program into southwestern Montana. It is also a flagship 

 program for the FWP Foundation which provides opportunities for general public support of 

 these efforts. It should be noted that aversive conditioning is not always successful, and some 

 individual bears will still occasionally need to be removed. 



Management Control 



Bears may become "habituated" to human activities (ignore nearby human activity) or become 

 "food-conditioned" (consume human food or garbage). These bears may lose their fear of 

 humans and no longer avoid people. Habituated, and especially food-conditioned bears, are most 

 often involved in injury or death to humans. To deal with these issues, FWP preferred 

 approaches are as follows: 1) If the bear is already habituated and/or food conditioned and is 

 viewed as a threat to human safety, that bear would be removed (euthanized or relocated to a 

 research facility/zoo). 2) Any bear causing human injury or death while acting in a predaceous 

 manner, will be destroyed. 3) A bear displaying aggressive, but non-predaceous, behavior will 

 not necessarily be removed, depending on the circumstances of the encounter and the sex, age 

 and reproductive status of the bear. 



Nuisance bears that have not yet become habituated or food conditioned may be candidates for 

 either: 1) trapping and on-site release accompanied by aversive conditioning, 2) on-site aversive 

 conditioning without trapping, or 3) trapping and relocation. Relocation is the least desirable 



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