When Bears Steal Human Food, Mom’s Not To Blame. ScienceDaily.
Cubs can learn it on their own or from watch unrelated bears.
Ralph Maughan
Dr. Ralph Maughan is professor emeritus of political science at Idaho State University. He was a Western Watersheds Project Board Member off and on for many years, and was also its President for several years. For a long time he produced Ralph Maughan's Wolf Report. He was a founder of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition. He and Jackie Johnson Maughan wrote three editions of "Hiking Idaho." He also wrote "Beyond the Tetons" and "Backpacking Wyoming's Teton and Washakie Wilderness." He created and is the administrator of The Wildlife News.
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It was interesting to note that the researchers mentioned that bears learn from other bears in the area. . bears have long been thought to be anti-social because we don’t usually see them with other bears besides their mother. However, the bears I know seem well aware of each other over several miles. Perhaps their idea of togetherness is different than ours. I have also witnessed bears examining (smelling) scat left behind by other bears, probably to determine what kind of food they were eating, and then backtracking that bear to the food source. This was interesting new information for bear managers. Hopefully they won’t automatically kill the cubs of a problem mother bear now. I wonder how many other things we think we know that will prove not quite true.