Bear season on its way

By this time last year, more than a half-dozen bears had been captured or killed in Carson Valley with the number of calls from residents hitting the hundreds.

Not so much this year, thanks to a wet spring and increased awareness of bears by residents, said Nevada Department of Wildlife spokesman Chris Healy.

"We had a pretty good year," he said. "Last year at this time, all the natural foods had dried up and the bears were forced to do things that they hadn't done before."

Healy said a record-setting week for moisture in May helped increase the natural vegetation bears feed on.

"It helped us with chukar, helped us with the bears," he said.

"Everything greened up and developed."

Healy credited implementation of Douglas County's bear ordinance with helping to discourage the bears.

"It made people more aware of the bears," he said. "Last year was abnormal in the number of bears. It was just an unbelievable year for bear-human interaction."

But that doesn't mean the bears are gone or won't be back for their regular season, which starts about now, Healy said.

It's down to what a normal year would be," he said. "That being said, we're now entering the period when bears become most active."

Bears begin devouring food in the fall, consuming 25,000-30,000 calories during a 18-20-hour feeding period.

"They will not shrink from the headlines for the next couple of months," Healy said. "We've been forcing bears to be more bearlike, but does that mean we don't have a problem? No. Bears are still going to be an ongoing problem because of where we've chosen to live."