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  • From: hwpark@kahres.kendal.org
  • To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] apple preferences of bears
  • Date: Mon, 5 Apr 2010 07:30:50 -0400

Bears need food to survive, so it depends where I live on what is available. In good mast years, they hardly bother my orchard; when food is sparse they will visit what ever is growing.  One year they made an apple tree into a telephone pole  by stripping off many limbs to get the fruit. This past year the bears and deer didn't clean up the drops as they usually do, which in the past has been a help. 

Hank Parker
zone 4, NH elev 1600

On Apr 4, 2010, at 11:12 PM, kk maser wrote:

Doug; They usually go for the fruit that is easiest to get at. So dwarf fruits/ or grape vines are like salad. Bigger trees suffer damage on the lower limbs. Bears aren't like starlings or deer wthat can inflict major damage on crops. Bears will come feed then leave. On a big commercial scale like orchards or vineyards the amount of damage they inflict isn't that major.
Deer do far more damage on fruit trees ie. growth or starlings do far more damage on grapes than a single bear will inflict.
In a small planting the damage would be more substantial. Most commercial growers will let  the bears have a meal. The amount of damge a bear does to a vineyard is far less then a flock of starlings. I gues it really comes down to how much damage you are willing to sustain. Most of the growers i know let them have their feed and leave them alone. We had a female bear and cubs come every year  to my neighbors vineyard. They would feed on the first 4 or 5 rows -stuff themselves and leave. The amount of damage they did was really quite small compared to what a flock of starlings could do in half an hour. The biggest problem you had with bears is human confrontation. If you scare them you can usually solve the problem.  
 
Cheers
 
Kim

On Sun, Apr 4, 2010 at 8:10 PM, Douglas Woodard <dwoodard@becon.org> wrote:
My guess would be that bears use their noses to judge ripeness and are
better equipped than us to judge fruit quality before tasting. Also at
the later season probably there are fewer alternatives to human planted
fruit crops. To quote one of David Suzuki's lines, it's a matter of
survival.

Kim, are they destructive of grapevines and dwarf trees whose fruit they
can reach from the ground, or do they only damage trees they have to climb?

Doug Woodard
St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada



kk maser wrote:
> Derry. Bears will eat anything that is available. If it's ripe they will
> eat it. When I was in the Okanagan bears would eat grapes, bears or
> apples. Color really didn't matter if it was ripe it was fair game. The
> bears were quite habitual and seem to know when the fruit was available.
> Even if the season varied by a couple of weeks they would show up. They
> usually went for the outside rows. They like to come in at dusk. Usually
> we reserved a few rows for them. If you want to scare the
> "bejusus"(excuse my newfinese ) out of them bear bangers or shooting off
> a shotgun will keep them away. They really like the later season more
> sugar in the fruit gives them the energy they need for winter hibernation.
>
> Cheers
>
> Kim
>
> On Sun, Apr 4, 2010 at 3:45 PM, derry&bill <wchase@interchange.ubc.ca
> <mailto:wchase@interchange.ubc.ca>> wrote:
>
>     Does anyone know of any research done on whether bears prefer red or
>     green apples or sweet or sour apples?
>
>     I know about choosing varieties which ripen early ... ideally before the
>     bears come down the mountains.
>
>     Derry Walsh
>     with customers in bear country.
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