Shocking as it sounds, simple human foods—sunflower seeds, orchard apples—kill bears every year in Montana. Why? Because once a bear finds these easy sources of food they become conditioned almost immediately to favor them over the more difficult to find and less calorie laden natural bear foods such as clover, ants and grubs, and wild chokecherries. A bear seeking human foods is certain to come in conflict sooner or later with people.
Capturing and removing bears to a new area is a notoriously ineffective. An even more expensive and time consuming step is to try to retrain bears to eat natural bear foods by using Karelian bear dogs, cracker shells and bean bag rounds to convince them to move away from areas used by humans.
Did You Know Sunflower Seeds Will Kill A Bear?
It is useless to retrain bears only to have them relearn their dangerous habits because nearby residents fail to eliminate the bear's access to bear attractants. The most effective way to save Montana's bears is to prevent them from obtaining any human foods or garbage in the first place.
It is that simple, and that difficult.