BY KAREN BOSSICK

A hundred-pound yearling black bear was euthanized in Hailey this past week after trying to get into a house, presumably in search of Haagen Dazs.

The young male had twice broken into a garage to find food before attempting to get into a house. Fish and Game officials decided to trap and euthanize the bear to protect public safety since it was showing increasingly aggressive behavior, said Terry Thompson, communications manager for Idaho Fish and Game-Magic Valley Region.

This is the first black bear Fish and Game has euthanized in the Wood River Valley since 2022.

“Having to euthanize this bear was an avoidable situation” said Mike McDonald, Regional Wildlife Manager. “Our hands were tied in terms of the options we had to respond, because the bear had become food-conditioned, leading it to become a public safety issue.

“We work hard to help educate residents on how to prevent a situation like this from happening,” he added. “Ultimately, the lack of residents who don’t secure their garbage or other attractants significantly contributed to the need to euthanize this bear.”

Idaho Fish and Game has received more than a hundred reports of black bears getting into garbage and other attractants like bird feeders and apple and crabapple trees in neighborhoods throughout the Wood River Valley since early August, Thompson said.

This year Idaho Fish and Game has relocated two black bears away from residential areas in the Wood River Valley and taken one cub to a licensed rehabilitation center.

Bears eat as many as 20,000 calories a day during fall as they try to fatten up to move into winter dens.

It is the responsibility of every homeowner in the Wood River Valley to secure their garbage and other attractants so that bears cannot get an easy food reward, said Thompson. Once they become food-conditioned, they can become aggressive in protecting their food source.

Many wildlife agencies across the United States have found that relocating a food-conditioned bear is not as effective at stopping the behavior as had been hoped, Thompson said. Experience has shown that bears will either return to the same place where they’ve been finding food or they will look for similar buffets in another community.

Garbage should be kept in a garage or locked shed. Bird feeders should be taken down in spring and not be put back up until the snow flies. Fruit should be harvested as soon as it’s ripe; fruit that’s fallen on the ground should be disposed of.

Learn more at https://wrvwildlifesmart.org/.