More for posterity than anything, here's how things are going with "the bear".
She (high confidence it's a female) has taken up residence on our property because she's found both food (trash) and shelter (15+acres of woods in the area). Trying to secure our trash cans only resulted in mutilated trash cans. We engaged the Missouri Department of Conversation (MDC) to help us, and after a bit of prodding finally got an agent to come out and evaluate our situation. He agreed that given the availability of food and territory, she was unlikely to just leave voluntarily. This animal was here to stay.
The idea suggested by MDC was to condition her that trash cans were bad in two ways. One was a "trash trap" of sorts, a wired up trash bin the agent setup designed to give her an electric shock when she got into it, and the other was to shoot her with rubber bullets when caught in the act of getting into a trash bin. These "bullets" are low power and simply give her a nasty sting when struck on the flank or rump, but a pained animal can do funny things so we weren't exactly thrilled with the idea of confronting her. But three of us whipped out our man cards and, armed with rubber bullet loaded shotguns plus a couple of large caliber handguns for safety, waited for her to approach the trash cans to try and condition her directly as suggested by MDC. I personally had little faith this would ultimately chase her off the Bend. I mean, where was she supposed to go? After that epic swim across the main channel I'm sure she thought she'd found a home. But MDC wanted to give conditioning a try and we were obliging. I'll reiterate that it was never our intention to kill or even injure her, but it's not often you get to "hunt" bear at the Lake of the Ozarks.
The long and somewhat funny story short version is that we were successful in hitting her in the rump as she was in the act of ransacking a trash bin. Unsurprisingly she fled up the nearest tree but within a few minutes, she climbed back down and cautiously headed back toward the trash bin. Great! A condition reinforcing opportunity! But by then a crowd of people gathered from neighboring rentals after being told to stay away had the exact opposite affect of bringing everyone out with cell phones in hand. It became unsafe to discharge weapons near the trash cans. Such a display of little regard for anyone's safety including their own by people sometimes has to be experienced to be believed. Guns in hand, large predator nearby...sounds like the perfect opportunity for creating a youtube video to me! But the enthusiastic Tik-Tok-ers managed only to spook her back up a tree where we were clear to give her another couple of shots in the rump to reinforce the point that this was not a safe area to be in. Knowing she would not come back down for quite awhile, plus it was getting dark, we packed it up and hoped she would have moved on by morning. Sorry for no pictures of the "hunt", but I was more interested in being in the moment and making sure everyone was safe during the encounter then snapping pics. I'm sure those enthralled Tik-Tok-ers have posted plenty enough video as it is.
The problem with the "conditioning" idea in general, and we expressed this to MDC, is that in the best case scenario, we were just making the bear someone else's problem. In my opinion, this was not a solution. There is nothing to sustain her other than trash, and humans are everywhere. The other concern is that there are other less tolerant property owners out there and a dangerous interaction is inevitable. Never mind that if she is a female, she'll draw a male to her in the breeding season from as far as 50 miles away and NOW you got a real problem. We understand MDC has limited resources, and that trying to motivate her off the peninsula was a reasonable first step as they simply cannot come trap and remove a bear every time one shows up in someone's backyard. But this animal cannot stay on Horseshoe Bend. The likelihood of a lethal encounter with a car or poacher is very high. That tree in the picture above is right next to the road. Plus she is now destroying property, making a mess, and scaring paying rental customers. And I don't care what anyone says about a black bear, while not usually a threat, they are not harmless. They are a large wild predator and lucky for her the largest state park in Missouri is just down the road. She should be moved there where her presence is expected and tolerated.
Update! As of this morning, our efforts to motivate her away did not work and she's sitting in a tree nearby right now. Thankfully MDC agrees that she should be removed and is coming to trap her. Hopefully they will find her a home where she can have a proper and natural bear life. Thanks MDC!
