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Habituation - UPDATE February 1, 2010

February 1, 2010 - 6:04 PM CST

Today, Lily heard a dog barking and snowmobiles—yet she continued to hover over the cub apparently undisturbed.   It shows how she has adapted to sounds that don’t hurt her.  It’s part of an example of how black bears can adapt to ‘civilization.’

But there are limits.  Lily is used to distant sounds of vehicles, 4-wheelers, snowmobiles, and barking dogs.  The same thing close to her den would be different.  It’s all part of a process called ‘habituation’—a word heard frequently in bear management circles like it’s something bad.  It just means bears are smart enough to get used to stressful stimuli that they learn does not hurt them.  Stimuli that initially may make a bear run away are ignored after bears are subjected to the stimulus a number of times without pain.  In campgrounds, bears initially run away when a person bangs pans.  Eventually, they ignore banging pans.  In residential areas, bears get used to seeing people and ignore them if the people behave in expected ways.  The same bears run from people in the forest.  We’re finding that habituation is location specific, situation specific, and to an extent individual human specific.

Two examples:

  • People in one of our Black Bear Field Courses were interacting with a 500-pound male in an area where the bear was used to seeing people.  The bear was calm.  The situation was familiar.  Six people surrounded the bear.  No problem.  The bear spotted someone a hundred yards away approaching from a place the bear did not expect to see anyone.  The bear bolted and was not seen for days.
  • In 2007, Sue was walking in the woods with June and her cubs (which included Lily).  Sue was fully accepted.  She was not a food-giver, but she was not a competitor.  She was not an object of the bears’ affection, but she was not an enemy.  Sue was just there recording data as usual.  She was ignored.  Over a hundred yards away, a person came into view on a path.  The bear family bolted—Sue with them.   Out of sight, the family was alert as the man passed.  Then they went back to foraging.

Habituation is more complicated than is usually recognized.  Only by being with bears, being trusted and accepted by them, can a person see how bears react.  What we are finding is very different from the simplistic notions usually stated.  By learning directly from the bears, just as Lily is showing us her activities in her den, we all are learning more about bear behavior than most people would have thought possible.

A big thank you to all who have contributed.  Much appreciated.

—Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield, Biologists, North American Bear Center


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