Living With Bears Handbook, Expanded 2nd Edition

by Linda Masterson, Rich Beausoleil (Foreword)

Today bears have a growing people-problem: their "backyards" are full of humans and people-provided food is everywhere. Discover practical solutions and real-world examples of how to prevent conflicts at home and at play so we can do a better job of sharing space with these intelligent, adaptable animals. CONTENTS - Understanding Bears and Bear Behavior - Bear-Proofing Your Home - Being Bear-Smart in the Outdoors - Attractant Management: Garbage, Bird Feeders, Fruit Trees, Beehives, Chicken Coops, Gardens, and more - Creating Bear-Smart Communities - Preventing Conflicts - Responding to Encounters and Attacks - A Bear Manager's World - Case Studies from the U.S. & Canada - North American Bear Populations, Extensive Resources For homeowners, communities, wildlife managers, educators, and anyone who spends time in the great outdoors.

288 pages, Paperback

Published November 25, 2015

About the author

Linda Masterson is a writer and researcher who specializes in sifting through mountains of information, unearthing what really matters and communicating with people in ways that make them think, nod their heads, groan, laugh and then get up off the couch and do something. Her books are well-researched, filled with practical information and fun to read. Books include Living with Bears Handbook and Surviving Wildfire. Get Prepared. Stay Alive. Rebuild Your Life. Linda and husband Cory Phillips live on Florida's southern Gulf Coast.

Reviews

[Beth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Of all the things we love about our mountain retirement home, the best of all is the bears. American black bears are beautiful and, ordinarily, not at all aggressive. The cubs tumbling over one another or scampering up a tree are beyond adorable, and the mothers just give you a good hard look, order the cubs to retreat, then retreat along with them. Sure, we keep a respectful distance and do all our bear watching from inside the house or car. But so long as we keep our distance, have the dog leashed, and carry bear spray—just in case—we’re fascinated rather than frightened.

When we moved in and started seeing bears ambling past our front windows, my first impulse was to learn more about them, and, on the recommendation of a local, I obtained Living with Bears. The title sounds like it’s about cohabiting in one’s house or denning down with the bears—neither of which is a good plan—so a more accurate title would be something like “Co-existing with Bears while Keeping Everyone Alive [especially the bears].” Its primary lessons are not about bear intelligence or bears’ remarkable sense of smell—though those are discussed quite a bit—but all the reasons not to feed the bears, either accidentally or on purpose. It’s filled with depressing tales of humans feeding bears that consequently became nuisance animals and had to be put down. So many giggles. Not.

There are sections about bear-safe garbage cans and communities that instituted bear-safe policies, but even those accounts of solutions to the problem of idiot humans are preceded by tales of massacred bears. So, so sad.

I really wanted to learn about bear reproduction, about how American black bears spend their winters (I do know that it is not, strictly speaking, “hibernation”), about bear social structures and territoriality, and well, stuff about bears I don’t even know yet that I would be interested in knowing. I’m still looking for that book.

I do know now that bears can smell garbage from a mile away and that they absolutely love bird feeders, which offer highly nutritious, high calorie, and extremely convenient meals. Until the bear figures out (because bears have that great sense of smell) that the seed is kept indoors and decides to go to the source. And then we have another sad, sad story. So no bird feeders at our house.

There was some informative stuff in this book, which I read cover to cover with great interest, but it’s not really the book I wanted.

[Flynt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book. Informative & comprehensive, yet surprisingly easy to read.

[Douglas Lord · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ecological props for this offering, which is about the best book on “living with bears” imaginable. Majestic, cute, scary, adorable, curious, bears are all these things and two more important things: smart and hungry. Bears are designed to eat—a lot. And because they are all smarter than the average bear, they also quickly learn how to get the most calories for the least amount of work (like a lot of mothers-in-law I have known). Humans stash good eats all over the place—trash cans, hen houses, beehives, etc. Indeed, Masterson’s “Bear Calorie Counter” effectively shows that natural foods like acorns, blueberries, and tent caterpillars tend to be on the lighter side, calorically speaking. Human foods, though, are a bonanza—jelly doughnuts are 400 calories a pop; a cherry pie (“cooling on windowsill”) is 2,500. And “[t]o get the 20,000 calories a day needed while fattening up before hibernation, a bear would need to eat…ONE 7-pound bird-feeder filled with black oil sunflower seeds.” Which would you choose, Chumley? Attracted by our bird feeders and trashed jelly doughnuts, bears get “habituated”—too comfortable around humans—and unintentionally cause conflicts, which 99 times out of 100, they lose. That’s the basic ecology lesson, but the book also provides tips on keeping your home bear safe, information about what to do if you encounter one, the signs and sounds that can help you determine if there’s one around, suggestions on how to view them, case studies and success stories, and specifics on how you (yes—you!) can help bears. VERDICT Fact-driven and reasonable in tone, this awesome, common-sense selection is a required purchase for every public library within 50 miles of a bear.

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