Abstract
We (Stringham and Bryant 2015) previously reported on Bryant’s experiment in diversionary baiting of black bears (Ursus americanus). This occurred during the historically severe drought of 2007, in the Lake Tahoe Basin at the border of California and Nevada, USA. Effectiveness of baiting was inversely related to each community’s distance from the bait site. That has provoked the question whether conflict rates during the period of baiting would have fallen anyway even without baiting. We show here that the general trend during both pre and post-baiting years (2005–2006 and 2008–2009) was for an increase in conflicts during the same months that conflict rate declined during 2007. We also previously reported that, when data were pooled from all 20 communities, total conflicts in the year after baiting were lower than in the year before baiting; there was no backlash after baiting ended. The question has since arisen about whether pooling data across all communities hid backlash in those communities closest to a 2007 bait site – that post-baiting conflict rate was also inversely related to each community’s distance from the nearest bait station. However, our regressions reveal no such relationship between distance versus total annual conflicts in each community during either or both of the 2 years post-baiting (2008–2009).
Recommended Citation
Stringham, Stephen and Bryant, Ann
(2016)
"Commentary Distance-Dependent Effectiveness of Diversionary Bear Bait Sites,"
Human–Wildlife Interactions: Vol. 10:
Iss.
1, Article 16.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.26077/d5bv-c877
Available at:
https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/hwi/vol10/iss1/16
