Bear checking outdoor trash cans for foo
There's a coyote hanging out in Boca Raton, Fla. Officials report a black bear roaming just three miles outside of Manhattan. And raccoons, well, they are just about everywhere.
This is why animal proof trash receptacles are more important today than ever. Wildlife habitat is shrinking. Humans are creating more trash. And people wonder why there are so many sightings for bears, coyotes, foxes and raccoons.
The answer is simple. To them trash is food. Trash that is accessible in parks, hotels, restaurants or homes is a ready-made meal.
Wildlife populations shift. They are sometimes displaced by development. Other times by fires or loss of their habitat. By nature, many animals are nomadic. They will keep moving until they find a source of food.
Establishments that are near wide open areas, such as woods or fields, are especially susceptible to these roaming creatures. And now, it seems, an establishment does not need to necessarily border a forest to become a target for foraging animals.
Bears can smell food one mile away - so use bear proof trash cans
Take bears for example. Sure, they have an enhanced sense of smell, 100 times better than humans. But did you know their smell is 40 times stronger than that of a bloodhound? Not only that, they can smell food from a mile away. A mile!
You can bet raccoons, coyotes, wolves and foxes are probably close behind when it comes to olfactory skills.
So when a bear is roaming, when it finds unprotected park trash cans or an open restaurant dumpster, it's not only dinner time that day, the bear figures this is the place for dinner time EVERY DAY.
"Feeding bears, whether intentional or not, creates habituated bears," said Adam Hammond, wildlife biologist with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources Wildlife Resources Division. "When a bear learns that it can get a 'free meal' from garbage, it's going to return again and again until eventually it loses its natural fear of humans, which can lead to potential conflict issues."
Raccoon dines ou
We're sure this applies to all four-legged creatures. Just got a free meal? Why not go back the next day to see what's next on the menu. Some officials report that bears and other creatures living near household areas have even figured out which days are garbage pickup days.
Animal proof trash receptacles are the answer. These are specially-designed park trash cans with latches that bears simply cannot open, no matter how hard they try. (For example, a bear resistant trash receptacle offered by The Park Catalog was literally tested in the field. The product was used at the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center outside Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming under the supervision of the Living with Wildlife Foundation. That's certainly the ultimate laboratory to see if your animal proof garbage cans are effective).
Animal proof trash receptacle
Because while we love to photograph our wild creatures and sometimes get a thrill when we see a bear walk through a backyard or cute raccoons wandering through a park, there is a major downside to open park trash cans or restaurant dumpsters.
Interactions between bears and humans don't always go well. Sometimes bears will attack, mostly because they think the humans are getting in between them and their food. In that case, the bear must be put down. There's also cases where some game and wildlife departments have a policy that if a bear raids the trash in populated areas more than once, it also has to be killed because it will just keep returning.
Nobody wants to see this. In fact, a bunch of school children in Steamboat Springs, CO, have decided to do what they can to keep bears safe by reminding fellow residents how important it is to keep outdoor trash cans secure, or keep trash indoors until garbage pick-up day.
The kids got together and used a small grant to purchase about 2,000 door hangers to help raise awareness with home owners about keeping bears away from their garbage cans or to place trash in bear proof trash cans. The students created the artwork and included information on city ordinances and bear proof containers.
Same goes for food establishments, hotels and motels. No business wants to be known as the place that attracted a bear that had to be shot by police.
If your establishment is near a wildlife area, it might be smart to add the right kind of commercial trash cans. Bears and other creatures really don't want to be roaming around parking lots or in the back of restaurants. But if the temptation is there, they will. Get the right bear proof garbage cans and animal proof trash receptacles so they won't.
To read about the Soda Creek elementary bear awareness program click here.