CDFW News

Factual Information About Lake Tahoe’s Black Bears

Fri, 30 Jan 2026 13:31:44 GMT

Keep Tahoe Bears Wild!

The Tahoe Interagency Bear Team (TIBT) is a collective of bear experts across federal, state and local agencies who study and understand bears and have devoted much of their professional lives to ensure the health and well-being of the Lake Tahoe Basin’s black bears. TIBT provides proven and scientifically backed information about the real issues and solutions for living and recreating in bear country.

Tahoe bears may at times seem like a unique bear species due to their general lack of fear and boldness around humans (habituation), but these black bears follow the usual biological patterns of black bears across California and Nevada. Whether living in or visiting bear country here at Lake Tahoe or beyond, this information should clarify what human actions are needed to help wild bears survive and thrive.

Secure Crawl Spaces

Web cam photos and videos of bears denning under homes can perpetuate the myth that property owners and residents should allow bears to den under homes and in crawl spaces. It can also encourage unwanted behavior such as laying out hay or other materials for bears. However, most homeowners don’t even know a bear is under or around their home until it has already established a makeshift den.

Bears often damage the insulation, exposing pipes to freezing temperatures or even damaging them in the process. Once a bear gets established, it can be difficult to make it leave. This increases the chances of human-bear conflict and habituated behavior.

Bears under homes need to be addressed by trained agency professionals as bears can be dangerous and unpredictable. If disturbed, mother bears with newborn cubs may abandon the den, orphaning the cubs in the process. For this reason, only a wildlife professional should evaluate the situation and offer advice to homeowners.

It’s important to remember that bears have evolved to comfortably survive winter without human help, so it is essential to board up all crawl spaces around homes to discourage bears from denning underneath. The TIBT video “Securing Your Crawl Space” will show you how to go about this.

Deny Access to Human Food and Trash

Black bears are very resilient and adaptive animals, and, as opportunistic omnivores, they will take advantage of any available food source, including human-provided foods like garbage. Their highly developed sense of smell allows them to find these food sources, even when locked in a vehicle or home, which in turn may lead bears into conflict with people.

It is true that bears need a lot of calories, especially in preparation for winter, but giving them handouts will not set them up to thrive. Repeated exposure to human foods can lead to food-conditioned bears which then view human homes and neighborhoods as reliable sources of food.

When mother bears teach their cubs to access human foods, they not only continue the cycle of human food-conditioning, but the cubs are much more prone to be involved in conflict, including being hit and killed by vehicles.

Consuming human food and garbage is incredibly unhealthy for bears because the high sugar content can increase tooth decay and painful abscesses. Intentionally feeding bears is illegal in both California and Nevada.

As omnivores, a bear’s diet is about 85% plant-based, with the remaining portion coming from consuming insects, small mammals and carrion. Bears should be allowed to fulfill their very important and vital ecological role as seed dispersers, predators and scavengers.

Get ‘BearWise’ to Keep Bears Wild

Black bears are smart. They have learned how to unscrew lids and open sliding glass and vehicle doors. They are also strong. In order to access food, they can peel a car door down from the top or break through a typical home door or window. Even after an incident like the 2021 Caldor Fire, where a huge swath of vegetation was burned in the Sierra Nevada mountains, wildlife biologists saw bears find natural ways to survive like the resilient omnivores that they are.

On rare occasions, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) and Nevada Department of Wildlife (NDOW) must remove bears that are putting human life and property at risk. No one, including agency biologists who have dedicated their lives and careers to protecting bears, want this outcome. It is only used with great discretion and as a last resort.

Bears are large, strong animals and once they become conditioned to human foods or comfortable around people and human surroundings, they pose a significant threat to human safety. For these reasons it is very important for people to be educated and dedicated to being “BearWise.” Learn how at the BearWise website.

It’s also important to note that except in the case of the immediate protection of human life, the only people who can legally interact with wildlife are designated state agency representatives or law enforcement professionals.

Slow Down for Bears, Wildlife

It can be exciting to see a big, beautiful animal like a black bear in a neighborhood, but it is not where bears belong. Human-developed areas pose many dangers to bears, particularly busy roads with cars, which bears must cross in order to get to the unhealthy human food and garbage in developed areas.

By allowing bears to comfortably live in or pass through neighborhoods, the chances that they will get struck and killed by vehicles increases greatly. If a bear is in your neighborhood, encourage it to move on by scaring it away so that it can lead a safer life away from developed areas and conflict. Slow down for bears and other wildlife in the Tahoe Basin. For more information on bear-vehicle collisions, see the TIBT video “When Bears and Humans Collide”.

The TIBT is dedicated to creating the best environment for bears to thrive and remain wild in an ever-growing, ever-changing environment like the Lake Tahoe Basin. CDFW and NDOW should be the only point of contact for any bear-related incidents or questions. CDFW and NDOW have trained black bear experts who can help navigate any human-bear conflicts.

We encourage the public to visit our website, TahoeBears.org, for accurate, science-based information about bears. To report bear incidents or conflict in the Lake Tahoe Basin, use the following:

In California, contact CDFW at 916-358-2917 or report online using the Wildlife incident Reporting (WIR) System.
Non-emergency bear collisions in California State Parks can be reported to public dispatch at 916- 358-1300.
In Nevada, contact NDOW at 775-688-BEAR (2327).
If the issue is an emergency, call the local sheriff’s department or 911.

Thank you for helping keep Tahoe bears wild and safe!

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Media Contact:
Peter Tira, CDFW Communications, (916) 215-3858

Spring Is Here, and With It Some Very Hungry Bears: Keep Tahoe Bears Wild!

Mon, 09 May 2022 08:29:11 GMT

LAKE TAHOE, Calif./Nev. – The snow is melting in the Lake Tahoe region and a mild winter has given way to a bustling, early spring for wildlife in the area. Bears have emerged from their dens, are on the move and hungry!

In the fall, black bears experienced hyperphagia (pronounced hai·pr·fei·jee·uh), which is an increase in feeding activity (consuming about 25,000 calories a day) driven by their need to fatten up before winter. Over the course of the winter, bears’ bodies utilize those fat stores during hibernation when food is scarce. Come spring, their body mass will have naturally decreased and as a result, bears will be on the lookout for easy food sources to help rebuild those fat reserves.

In the spring, bears come down in elevation to seek out fresh grasses that are starting to sprout, which often brings them into human-occupied areas with green lawns. Unfortunately, these urban areas have an abundance of human attractants for bears to easily access. It is up to visitors and residents to keep bears from finding unnatural, human food sources.

Bears play an important part in Lake Tahoe’s ecosystem and allowing them access to human food and garbage is detrimental to natural processes in the region. Bears help spread berry seeds through their scat, transport pollen, clean up animals that died during the winter, eat insects, and provide other essential functions of nature.

As a result, if they find and access human food and garbage, bird seed, pet food, coolers, and other sources of human food, the Tahoe Basin loses the benefits bears offer to these natural processes. Bears need to be wild animals rather than garbage disposals, especially since these unnatural food sources can impact their overall health and damage and/or rot their teeth.

In fact, bears will unknowingly eat indigestible items from human trash like foil, paper products, plastics, and metal that can damage their internal systems and even lead to death. If these items do make it through their digestive system, they leave it behind in their scat rather than the native seeds and healthy fertilizer needed to grow the next generation of plant life.

Spring is also the time of year that residents or visitors may see a bear they feel looks unhealthy, sick, or orphaned. If anyone has concerns about a bear’s state of health, never hesitate to call state agency wildlife experts. If the bear needs help, wildlife experts have the training to assess the bear’s condition and transport it to a wildlife veterinarian. Healthy bears mean healthy ecosystems, and we can all do our part to set both up for success!

Follow these important tips to help keep Tahoe’s bears wild:

Never feed wildlife.
Store all garbage in and properly close bear-resistant garbage containers, preferably bear boxes. Inquire with local refuse companies about bear box incentives and payment programs. Visit www.ndow.org/Nevada_Wildlife/Bear_Logic/ for more information.
Never leave leftovers, groceries, animal feed, garbage, or anything scented in vehicles, campsites, or tents.
Always lock vehicles and close the windows. Keep in mind eating in the car leaves lingering food odors that attract bears.
Keep barbecue grills clean and stored in a garage or shed when not in use.
Keep doors and windows closed and locked when the home is unoccupied.
Vegetable gardens, compost piles, orchards, and chickens may attract bears. Use electric fences where allowed to keep bears out. Refrain from hanging bird feeders.
When camping, always store food (including pet food), drinks, toiletries, coolers, cleaned grills, cleaned dishes, cleaning products, and all other scented items in bear-resistant containers (storage lockers/bear boxes) provided at campsites. Bear-resistant coolers that come equipped with padlock devices should always be locked.
Always place garbage in bear-resistant dumpsters in campgrounds or in bear-resistant containers at campsites (storage lockers/bear boxes), and close and lock after each use.
Store food in bear-resistant food storage canisters while recreating in the backcountry.
Give wildlife space, especially when they have young with them.
Leave small bears alone, as mom might be right around the corner.

“The bottom line is that Lake Tahoe is bear country. It is up to each one of us, including those living in, visiting, or recreating in the Tahoe Basin to practice good stewardship habits by always securing food, trash, and other scented items,” said USDA Forest Service Public Affairs Specialist Lisa Herron. “Good habits will help ensure we keep Tahoe bears wild.”

To report human-bear conflicts in California, contact the California Department of Fish and Wildlife at 916-358-2917 or report online using the Wildlife Incident Reporting (WIR) system at apps.wildlife.ca.gov/wir. Non-emergency wildlife interactions in California State Parks can be reported to public dispatch at 916-358-1300. To report human-bear conflicts in Nevada, contact Nevada Department of Wildlife at 775-688-BEAR (2327). If the issue is an immediate threat or emergency, call the local sheriff’s department or 911.

For more information on peacefully coexisting with bears, visit TahoeBears.org.

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Photo courtesy of the Nevada Department of Wildlife.