Black bear populations are recovering across North America, but increasing human-wildlife conflict driven by food conditioning creates welfare and safety problems for both bears and people.
Bears that become food-conditioned through access to human food sources face shortened lives as a result of the subsequent conflict. Relocation rarely solves the problem permanently, and euthanasia of food-conditioned bears represents a preventable welfare outcome. The responsibility for preventing food conditioning lies primarily with humans — securing garbage, removing bird feeders during bear season, and not feeding wildlife deliberately. Bears that access human food are rewarded with high-calorie resources that make return visits highly reinforcing, making prevention far more effective than responding to established conditioning.