A new study has revealed that stricter regulations at Yosemite National Park has drastically reduced the amount of human food consumed by bears, helping to keep the animals from becoming a nuisance.
Conducted by researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz, the study showed that new food storage rules implemented in 1998 have reduced the amount of human food eaten by the park's black bears by 63 percent, Live Science reported.
"What we found was that the diets of bears changed dramatically after 1999, when the park got funding to implement a proactive management strategy to keep human food off the landscape," said Jack Hopkins, lead study author and a wildlife ecologist at the University of California, Santa Cruz, as quoted by Live Science. "This suggests that the bear's diets are likely going back to their natural diet."
The new rules were enacted after a record 1,584 bear incidents in one year inspired park officials to impose stricter food storage regulations.
The UCSC group tracked the diets of 200 bears using hair and bone samples, Science Recorder reported via a school news release.
Analyzing chemical isotopes in the samples, the researchers discovered just how much human food had been found in the bear diet. Their findings were published in the March issue of Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment.
The problem when bears eat human food is that the animals get accustomed to the food and start looking for it, something that results in more interaction with humans and dangerous incidents.
Bears that don't consume human food should have a longer lifespan since it is less likely that they will become a nuisance or wander too close to developed areas and be shot by hunters.
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