Hot weather brings critters, humans together

Lions and bears, oh, my.

Black bears and other wildlife are moving into rural and not-so-rural neighborhoods in the Four Corners states, driven down by hot, dry weather that has cut down on their food in the wild.

New Mexico game officers have trapped and moved bears from Edgewood, in the mountains east of Albuquerque, and from Santa Fe. Two were killed near Durango, Colo., earlier this month - one by a homeowner and the second when it started killing chickens. An Arizona camper shot a black bear near Safford and a homeowner shot another near Arizona's Roosevelt Lake.

Chris Chadwick, spokesman for the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish in Albuquerque, said bear troubles started earlier than normal this year.

The department wants residents and campers to ''remove anything that could be considered bear food.''

''Hummingbird feeders, bird feeders, pet food and trash all need to be secured some place where bears can't get to them,'' Chadwick said.

Bears aren't the only problem.

A 4-year-old girl was treated at a Phoenix hospital after being attacked by a mountain lion while her family was camped in late April at Bartlett Lake in Arizona. Authorities believe that because of dry conditions, the cougar was hunting in a draw near where the family was camped.

A mountain lion padded into an abbey chapel in Canon City, Colo., last month and sprawled under a pew. Game officials shot it with a tranquilizer dart and returned it to the wild, far from the chapel.

Deer populations are at a 20-year low because of the drought, and wildlife officials predict encounters between wildlife and humans will get worse.

''We are expecting wildlife-human interactions to increase,'' said Kevin Bergersen of the Arizona Game and Fish. ''People need to be lion- and bear-aware while afield.''

Drought conditions also have forced bears into bad habits that could spell a death sentence if a bear becomes attached to trash, dog food, bird feeders and other sources of food.

Once a bear finds an easy food source, even the next generation of bears is at risk.

''A high percentage of bears will go right back to the area that they were trapped and become an even bigger problem,'' said Melody Miller, a district wildlife manager in Durango, Colo. ''Last year, sows brought their cubs down for food and some of those yearlings have returned.''

Under normal conditions, bears forage on greenery in the high country through late July or early August. But dry conditions have pushed up the blooming cycle, reducing the time bears have to eat greens. At the same time, berries and acorns haven't yet arrived.

Another wrinkle: a human explosion in rural areas.

For example, the last time Colorado had a major drought was in the 1980s. Now, nearly two decades later, a lot more homes have been built in bear habitat.

''The landscape of 2000 is very, very different. We've got thousands and thousands of homes built in bear habitat,'' said Tom Beck, a Colorado state wildlife researcher based in Dolores, Colo.