Garbage-raiding bear nabbed in Gardnerville

After walking bear-foot through numerous trash cans along Douglas Avenue in Gardnerville and in Minden, a 4-year-old, 180-pound black bear was trapped about 1 a.m. Wednesday.

He was released in the Carson Range later that afternoon, said Carl Lackey of the Nevada Department of Wildlife.

"We haven't seen this bear before, but he's been hitting the Minden area for two weeks," Lackey said. "The bears are using the river as a travel corridor. As dry as it is, they've been going up and down the river."

Garbage left unattended provides a steady, rich diet for these animals, increasing both their weight and birth rate when compared to their wilder counterparts, but the mortality rate also increases for urban bears, according to Lackey.

Between 200 and 300 bears inhabit the area and as the bears die, others are drawn into the urban interface, where they are exposed to hazards they wouldn't face in the wild.

The population of black bears has not increased, but population densities near urban areas have.

Known as black bears, their historic range extended throughout Nevada, but it's now been reduced to the Pine Nut Mountains, remote areas of the Carson Range and the Wassuks Range near Hawthorne.

If garbage and other factors were properly secured or removed from the Tahoe Basin and Carson Valley, the bears would return to the wild. There would still be a few sightings, but nuisance problems would be all but eliminated, Lackey said in a previous interview.

"People shouldn't leave trash exposed, plant fruit trees or have koi ponds," he said.

A code requiring bear-proof collection bins in Lake Tahoe could be expanded to include all of Douglas County.

-- Susie Vasquez can be reached at svasquez@recordcourier.com or 782-5121, ext. 211.