Conservation Service Officers (CSO) euthanized a bear in Greenwood last week.
CSO Mark Walkosky said the bear was shot in a backyard on Strathmore Avenue Thursday evening, June 3. CSOs had recently received multiple complaints from residents who reported that the animal had several times rummaged through their compost heap.
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The residents were given a Dangerous Wildlife Protection Order instructing them to better store their compost, Walkosky said.
“Any time we have a bear accessing unsecured garbage or other attractants — that’s an avoidable human-wildlife conflict,” he told The Times / Gazette.
Walkosky said the bear, an elderly female, weighed around 120 lbs and was not nursing when it died.
The bear was deemed a threat to residents after it reportedly broke into a different compost heap in a city carport last week.
Bears are characteristically difficult to relocate once they’ve acquired a taste for garbage, Walksoksy explained. Bears who are relocated may not know where to find food or den sites and are likely to return to places where they know they can find easy calories in people’s unsecured trash, he continued.
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