Bear stories: Bears on the slopes at a ski resort

An interesting story from an area that I love, Lake Tahoe in California.

Bears have been roaming around the ski hills. It would be surprising, wouldn't it? To be skiing and slide up to a bear. Especially as this is the time of year they are usually hibernating.

In the story, a spokesman from the Nevada Department of Wildlife says that the bears are not hibernating because they have become acclimated to human's garbage as a source of food. This makes a lot of sense. Hibernation is a conversation strategy that animals use to survive a winter season when less food is available. They lower their metabolic rate so that they can live from fat stores. If food is available, especially high-calorie food like garbage from humans, then the bears don't need to hibernate. I wonder what effect this has on them.

Are these bears getting into the garbage around the resort?

I don't know the whole story, but it sounds like they are. While the issues around global warming are huge and complex, I hope they take quick steps to shore up their garbage to reduce the potential for bear/human conflict (which almost always ends badly for the bears). As a skier, I find this photo so odd--a bear walking through a slalom course. With lifts and lodges, skiing can make so domesticated that we might forget that we are in the wilderness.

This is a mistake. It is bear country.