Bear-human conflicts are increasing as human development expands into bear habitat, and evidence-based non-lethal management strategies significantly reduce both bear mortality and human risk.
Bear-human conflict welfare interventions benefit both species by preventing the escalation from food conditioning to conflict situations requiring lethal response. Bears attracted to human food sources face a welfare trajectory from initial success through increasing conflict and eventual killing. The welfare-positive intervention prevents the conditioning in the first place through secure attractant management. Communities that invest in bear-proof infrastructure and education programs experience fewer bear-human incidents and dramatically lower rates of bear mortality from conflict. The financial cost of prevention is consistently lower than the combined costs of incident response and bear removal programs.