California Business Minute™

Hi, I am Tim Johnson and welcome to the California Business Minute.

Researchers from the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) found that
the black bears that become habituated to human food and garbage may
not be learning these behaviors exclusively from their mothers, as widely
assumed. Bears that steal human food sources are just as likely to form
these habits by themselves or pick them up from unrelated, ‘bad influence’
bears.

Working in both the Lake Tahoe Basin on the California-Nevada border and
California's Yosemite National Park (where bears breaking into visitors' cars
has become commonplace), the researchers examined genetic and behavioral
data for 116 black bears. The bears were classified as either food-conditioned (or
hooked on human food) or non-food-conditioned (those bears that forage on natural
food sources). The study also focused on nine mother-offspring pairs to test the
assumption that mother bears teach their cubs to invade garbage bins or homes.

The verdict: Researchers found little evidence linking food-conditioned behavior with
related lineage. The study indicates that bears may seek out human food as a function
of social learning that may be independent of close relatives, or as a habit that is
acquired in isolation from other bears

I am Tim Johnson and this has been the California Business Minute.

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