MEDFORD, Ore. (AP) — Wet spring weather has reduced the natural food for hungry bears in southern Oregon and they are starting to rummage through garbage in rural areas.
The Mail Tribune reports that wet weather last spring triggered very poor acorn and berry crops — black bear staples — and led to a record 477 complaints of bear problems in the Rogue Valley.
Biologists say a wet spring again this year has bears awaking a little late from hibernation even hungrier than normal.
They say some bears are not uninterested in their normal spring diet of grasses, grubs and deer, and instead are drawn to rural garbage cans.
