LOOK
WHEN YOU
Billy the Black Bear
When you look at Billy, you see the consequences of coexistence
Studied by: Kyra G.
Billy always intrigued me. His asymmetrical eyes and awkward body position strike many of the museum visitors. While I was studying Billy, I heard people call him "friendly," "cute," and even "a dork." It's fair to say that many people, myself included look at Billy and think that he isn't very bear like at all.
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This could be because Billy didn't grow up like normal black bears. Billy was an orphan, found in Northern Idaho in the spring of 1988. He was taken to Washington State University's Bear Research facility, where he was reportedly used in experiments that set out to determine the nutritional value of common bear foods. This is where he was given the name Billy. As Billy got older, he became more aggressive towards the researchers. Consequently, he was put down. Billy was about 5 or 6 years old when he died.
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Billy is, at the end of the day, a dead bear. If you look closely enough at Billy, like I did during the countless hours I spent working in the museum, you can see a hint of sadness in his eyes. Moved by this sadness, I chose to use my project to analyze the issues that prevent humans and black bears from coexisting peacefully.
Black bear baiting, credit: nuttallphotos.com
Hunting
The fact that Billy was an orphan found in springtime likely suggests that his mother was killed during spring hunting. While killing a nursing female black bear is illegal, many mothers are accidentally culled when foraging at a distance from their young. One controversial hunting method legal in the state of Idaho is baiting, where hunters leave food, typically things like doughnuts and other smelly sweets, and wait for a bear to approach. Black bears, able to smell foods as far as a mile away, inevitably come to the bait. Then, a hunter waiting a safe distance away is able to shoot the bear. Assault weapons are also legal for bear hunting in Idaho, giving black bears essentially no chance to survive baiting.
Habitat Loss
Like many species, black bears are losing much of their habitat to human development for housing and agriculture. This has resulted in black bear populations becoming fragmented, preventing physically isolated populations from breeding outside of their immediate group. This decreases genetic diversity and threatens the health of the species overall. Even in areas that have been created to preserve black bear habitat, such as National Parks, bears are still art risk. While these conservation efforts are valiant, every year hundreds of black bears are struck by cars on the road as they venture into more populated areas in search of food.
Black bear crossing road, credit: Michael Penn, Juneau Empire
Habituation
As a result of habitat loss, black bears have been forced into closer contact with humans. When people do not take precautions to store and dispose of their food properly in bear country, black bears consume human foods, and stop foraging for their natural diet. The process by which animals become dependent on human foods and more familiar with humans is called habituation. As a result of habituation, black bears lose their fear of humans and must be euthanized due to their increased likelihood of attacking a person. In some unfortunate cases, people have even intentionally fed bears to take selfies with them, resulting in the death of the habituated bear.