Not surprisingly, according to AP Writer Brian Melley, this less-than-healthy lifestyle has brought lots of changes to the black bears' habits and habitat as with the lure of a year-round supply of garbage "the Tahoe bear has altered its hibernation cycle, taken to prowling the graveyard shift, and grown fatter than your average bear."
A study in the Journal of Zoology documents behavioral changes brought about by the bears less-than-wild environment. According to Carl Lackey, a wildlife biologist with the Nevada Department of Wildlife who assisted Jon Beckmann and Joel Berger of the Wildlife Conservation Society with their study, black bears in the Tahoe basin historically roamed up to 150 square miles, weighed 200 to 300 pounds, and foraged up to 20 hours a day for berries, nuts and carrion. That's all changed as, "At one point in the study, 12 bears were within one square mile of a dumpster", according to Lackey. "Good ol' Burger King. Those Whoppers fed some whopper bears. We had several in the 450- to 550-pound range." Instead of spending 20 hours foraging, the bears can fill their 25,000 calorie-a-day needs in just a few hours with much less effort.
As food supplies dwindle, most bears retreat into dens for winter hibernation. The urban bears with steady food supplies have modified their hibernation patterns, however, napping for shorter periods or not at all as was the case with five of the 38 Tahoe bears studied.
Homeowners in one rocky residential hilltop neighborhood were surprised recently by a bear "who tore open the bottom half of their metal garage door and raided their garbage. Two nights later, it returned for a freezer full of frozen fish from Alaska. The bear overturned the ice box and ate a $400 seafood dinner. It returned the following night, flipped the freezer again and finished off the remaining salmon, crab and shrimp."
Besides the problems of becoming fat and lazy, more bears are being hit by cars, and are either poisoned or shot to protect public safety. "Wildlife official have tried hazing bears with pepper spray, chasing them with aggressive dogs and shooting them with rubber bullets--an approach that has helped reduce bear incidents at Yosemite national Park by 75 percent in the last five years."
The situation with the black bears in the Lake Tahoe Basin may be more studied and documented than in other sections of the country, but appears to be just another example of the problems to be expected as housing creeps into wildlands and the animals either lose habitat or adapt their lifestyle to take advantage of the changes.
My older sister sent me a video of it. Why this elderly couple hasn't been killed by the sow yet is beyond me. Even still why the sow and cubs haven't been killed because they have "visited" other humans is a mystery.