Bear sightings throughout all neighbourhoods have been trickling in over the past month or so.
As it turns out, residents aren't the only members of the community responsible for feeding bears some of our local restaurants are providing abundant food for bears with dumpsters left wide open and grease barrels accessible.
During the past week, a mom and two yearlings have been getting into restaurant garbage.
They have been seen running the gauntlet across Highway 99 from the safe cover of the forest, where there is abundant natural food, to the open dumpsters, messy grease containers and open garbage cans on the other side.
It's pretty difficult for a bear to eat natural food when it's being tempted and then rewarded with non-natural food. So, if you're wondering where the bears are, check out your local eatery and see if they're offering an open invitation for a bear to dine.
Being that bears have two seasons to live by -hibernation is coming and hibernation is here - food is always on their minds. After not eating or drinking for about five months, bears are now grazing on grass, clover, dandelions, catkins and early skunk cabbage leaves.
They must consume a copious amount of food in order to gain weight, and often, due to the low nutritive value of springtime food, can continue to lose weight well into June.
It's no wonder our smelly high-calorie garbage is such a treat for them.
Although black bears are classified as carnivorous, they are omnivorous, with vegetation making up 75 to 80 per cent of their diets.
They are not well adapted to eating vegetation, unlike hoofed mammals that can digest the cellulose that is found in plants.
Bears are essentially meat-eaters who have adapted by including a variety of plants in their diet. Their preferred foods are fruit, nuts, plants, insects, insect larvae, spawning salmon, crustaceans, carrion, and at times, deer fawn.
Bears will move with the availability of their primary foods, moving from areas that have limited food to those areas that are abundant.
