This bear was spotted earlier this month roaming around Andanada Street and El Corto in Los Alamos. Photo by Ken Hanson

COUNTY News:

Bears continue to make their way into residential areas due to lack of food in the wild and ease of getting it out of trash roll carts.

If a bear does not find a food source, it will move on. However, bears that are accustomed to eating human food are more likely to become habituated and are more prone to have dangerous human encounters. Here are some safe practices for managing trash to minimize encounters with bears:

• Keep your family, neighbors, pets, and property safe: store your garbage in your garage or shed until the morning of your collection*
• County code requires trash to be set out for collection no earlier than 5:00pm the day prior to collection, but to avoid attracting bears to your property, try to set out trash roll carts the morning of trash collection. Roll carts have to be placed out before 8:00am for trash collection.
• Strong and smelly odors will attract bears. To reduce odors keep odorous items out of the trash until trash collection.
• Clean your trash roll cart frequently.
• Remove suet & hummingbird feeders.
• Secure chicken coops and other small livestock pens with electric fencing.
• Do not feed pets outside and bring pets in at night.
• Clean barbecues and store in a secure area.*
• Maintain any fallen fruit, stock up for the winter and preserve fruit by canning or drying it.

These are just a few safety tips to help minimize encounters with bears in residential areas. Please notify New Mexico Department of Game and Fish immediately if you encounter a bear, or have any questions or concerns. They can be reached at 505.328.2572, or call dispatch at 505.827.9376.

REMEMBER, BEARS CAN’T CHANGE THEIR BEHAVIOR, ONLY HUMANS CAN.*

*Source Arizona Game and Fish Department