Do you own an accommodation facility?

With your work you can give bears a voice and teach ethical and conscious use of the mountains, and help your community to coexist with bears

READING TIME 5 MIN

Is it possible to create an accommodation facility that challenges the bears’ intelligence? There is only one rule to follow: do not lure bears onto your property with leftover food, fruit trees, feed and dog food. Is this really possible? Yes, with simple adjustments to daily routines and by directing citizens to adopt conscious, responsible and community-friendly behaviour. Securing everything that attracts bears is the only way to prevent damage to property, to avoid risky situations for people and to avoid making bears too problematic

Bears learn from their experiences. Once they have discovered that there is food, they return to it – they can be easily conditioned. It is absolutely much easier to secure food than to teach bears not to look for it. It is a very rare event to be attacked by a bear in your own backyard, but why play with safety?

With your work, you are also among the first to be able to give bears a voice and teach ethical and conscious use of the mountains and generate a butterfly effect for nature conservation.

Read this list of good practices and find the one(s) that suit you best:

Remove trees and shrubs that produce fruit that is attractive for bears (apples, pears, cherries, plums, grapes, figs, blackberries and raspberries) from your garden. Replace them with varieties that do not produce fruit, or with fruit that is not attractive to bears (e.g. quinces). If you do not want to remove the plants, you could use gardening techniques to keep them from bearing fruit or pick the fruit when it is ripe (or shortly before) and do not let the fruit accumulate on the ground. If you can’t manage that alone, ask a friend or neighbour for help, or a volunteer association or the Park Authority closest to you: you will certainly find someone willing to listen and help you.

Do not leave animal feed or other animal food accessible on your property. Do not leave rubbish outside your home unless you have a bear-proof container. If door-to-door collection exists in your municipality, leave the containers outside no more than two hours before collection time, and never at night.

Keep your guests updated! Inform yourself about regulations and permitted access if you work in a protected area and disseminate the correct information to your guests. Distribute information material on bears and how to deal with animals, either by downloading from our website or by requesting documents from your nearest protected area.

If you encounter a bear, remain calm. Always try to leave space for the bear (an escape route) and move away slowly. Invite your neighbourhood to do the same and call the nearest Carabinieri station or park rangers.

Suggest your guests to be accompanied by knowledgeable, informed and sensitive guides. Use appropriate images of bears and other wildlife on your social media, website and materials. Promote conscious, experiential tourism that neither commoditises nor instrumentalises the wildlife in your area.

For the future of the bear, every small action counts. Spread knowledge, raise awareness, make a difference.

Subscribe and spread the Carta dell’orso, become a true Bear Ambassador!