Does baiting have the potential to exacerbate conflicts between bears and people?
Based on a review of bear nuisance complaints, including an analysis of our research bears involved in nuisance complaints, we do not believe that baiting exacerbates conflicts between bears and people. We began studying black bears in 1975 on 3 study areas in northern, north-central, and central Maine. Bears are hunted over bait in all 3 study areas, and bait was used to capture bears for research. We have captured and marked 1,641 bears during the last 28 years. Only 12 (<1%) of our research bears were involved in bear nuisance complaints; 8 of the 12 incidents were not associated with human foods (4 bears disturbed beehives, 3 destroyed oat or corn crops, and 1 disturbed a bird feeder). Despite the recent increase in bear baiting, only 3 of the 12 study bears were involved in nuisance complaints since 1990. In 2002, with an estimated 23,000 bears statewide, MDIFW documented 164 conflicts (<1 %) between humans and bears. The North Maine Woods manages 4 million acres of land for bear
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