Brief by Central Staff
Wildlife – April 2001 – Colorado Central Magazine
Instead of the birds and the bees, rural landowners should be worrying about the connection between the birds and the bears.
That’s what Mark Lamb of the Colorado Division of Wildlife told the Park County Commissioners at a recent meeting.
The problem is that people fill their bird-feeders with seed that attracts birds. That’s fine in the winter, when bears are hibernating, but the rest of the year, the seeds attract hungry bears, too.
“Bears are learning that people are a good food source,” he said, and they’re not just knocking in doors and windows, they’re tearing trailers apart. “Killing and dumping them doesn’t solve the problem,” he continued, since “another bear just moves into the territory.”
So, if you live out in the woods, put your bird-feeder away after April 15, Lamb said. And if you insist on feeding summer hummingbirds, take the feeder in at night, or plant some flowers that hummers like.