With growing black bear populations and an ever-increasing sprawl of human development, conflicts are inevitable and increasing. The question is, will we learn to live with this magnificent animal?

Ben Kilham can't answer his own question, but is sure that the bear has become a serious student of human behaviour. With intelligence comparable to that of the great apes, the black bear routinely distinguishes between threatening and non-threatening human behaviour. The same bear that so peacefully drains your bird-feeder while you watch through sliding-glass doors, also successfully evades human predators during the hunting season.

Coexistence is up to us. And we can go a long way in that direction by answering two simple questions: Why do some bears become "nuisance bears"? Why do some communities have more problems than others?

According to Ben Kilham, who has tried numerous methods to deal with bears that were causing problems for people, most of these methods have resulted in marginal to poor results. Non-lethal tools didn't solve any problems and proved fatal for one of his orphans. Trapping and relocating can sometimes be successful, but this method is expensive. Electricity was the one thing that all bears feared. Electric fences are very effective at keeping bears out.

Kilham came to the conclusion that most of the traditional solutions that weren't working were anthropocentric; we understood what they were supposed to convey, but the bears didn't. Kilham decided to approach the problem from the bear's point of view.

He realized that it's all about food. There's nothing that will motivate a bear better than food, but the problem is that very little work has been done experimenting on developing effective ways to use it. It seemed that all the creative thinking stopped when the words "food-conditioned" and "habituated" started being used to describe problem bears. Nobody wanted to push bear control efforts in the direction of the problem itself. But when bears are already food-conditioned and habituated, Kilham asks; "how can you do any further harm by manipulating their behaviour using food?"

Kilham has successfully used supplemental feeding to stop problem bear behaviour. He suggests a plan using the same food the bears are feeding on in someone's backyard, only delivered to them deep in the woods in good cover. Given a choice, bears will always take food at a more secure location.

One of the main reasons for an increase of bear activity in residential areas is a seasonal shortage of natural foods in nearby woods. Establishing select feeding sites can be effective in these situations, but it's important to have a specific plan, a limited feeding program, and a definite end. Proper sites must be secure: remote, in good cover, and not readily accessible to hunters. If it's done correctly, bears will communicate the whereabouts of relocated food sites in order to share them, making it cost-effective to maintain the needed bait sites.

Clearly, this is only a temporary solution. The only real cure to residential bear problems is for people to clean up food or garbage that may attract bears. According to Kilham, when a bear walks into your yard, its motive is simple: it wants food and will go about finding it in pretty much the same way it would in the forest. But bears don't have our standards of etiquette; a locked porch with a bag of bird-seed on it will be treated like a big stump full of ants. The clapboards on your house that you didn't know had insects behind them, might suddenly get shredded. Remember, nothing good ever happens when people with food invite bears to approach their houses.

Often, people feel comfortable with bears feeding from their bird-feeder in the middle of the yard, but when the bear comes too close to the house, they consider it to be a problem. That's the fickle nature of people. We invite the bear into our yards, intentionally or unintentionally, and then, if it breaks one of our rules, we complain or, sometimes, worse - we shoot the bear.

Because bears are so highly evolved, they're all individuals. Just like us, they have highly variable personalities and personal histories. Thus, it isn't always a seasonal shortage of wild forage that drives many of the local bears to approach people and their settlements; sometimes it's a social problem that affects just one of them. Territorial disputes often drive bears into residential areas, particularly young males, dispersed from their natal range. These wanderers may follow the trails of other bears and find signals, like a scat marking, "it's safe to feed here", and they get their introduction to the fact that good meals are available at human homes.

It seems as though the higher the density of human population, the less territorial are the bears and the greater the amount of human food available to a driven wanderer. Consequently, young adolescent males account for the majority of human-bear conflicts. But even troubled bears don't become nuisances without human assistance.

Some bears are incidental and opportunistic feeders of human foods. Most human foods, especially sunflower seeds, have many times the calories per gram of green vegetation or berries. Almost any bear feeding on naturally available foods at the community's perimeter, under the right conditions, can be seduced to experiment with high quality human foods.

These bears have not necessarily lost their fear of humans as much as they have become skilled at observing our body language, a natural extension of the way they study each other. Bears will often feed only at bird-feeders that can be accessed directly from vegetative cover. Kilham calls bears that live primarily on human-supplied foods "specialists".

Even when bears are being fed, or feeding from bird-feeders, or panhandling from tourists, they are still bears, so they will treat you like another bear. The problem is that bears are very physical with each other. Even though they may look and act like a big dog, a sudden miscommunication, like trying to pet one, may result in a sudden and unavoidable swat or bite. Bears play by bear rules and know nothing of ours. Close contact between uniformed people and bears is a script for disaster. So the answer is straightforward: Don't get close!

Bears are signallers. They let you know their every move in advance, that is, if you can recognise their signals. If you encounter a bear, pay attention to the general tone of the animal. Try to assess the bear's mood between its bursts of display. Does it have a pleasant face, or does it appear scared? Ask yourself; "have I done something to provoke it, or is it just looking at me?" You may never have seen a bear in your life, but you've got some deep instincts that will allow you to judge the attitude of the animal looking back at you. Keep your wits intact and trust them.

When a bear wants another animal (bear or person) to leave, he'll lock his eyes on the animal, then walk in their direction in a purposeful manner. This is a technique Kilham uses with great success to motivate bears to leave residential areas. It makes perfect sense: when the bear locks his eyes on his subject, he defines the target; when he walks toward his subject, he demonstrates his intent; and with the purposeful or stiff walk, he transmits his mood.

Most animal vocalizations are motivational in nature and generated through their larynx, which is tied through their central nervous system to their emotional state. This means that if they growl or make harsh sounds, they really are angry; if they make soft sounds, they're trying to appease. It's true with us too; we can lie with words, but, for the most part, the tone of our voice will reflect our emotional state. For an animal to deceive or bluff with sound, it has to generate that sound in a manner that won't reveal its true emotional state. So even when the bear in front of you is chomping its teeth together, snorting, huffing, swatting, or even false-charging, none of these actions reflect the bear's emotional state. They're all mechanically generated sounds. They come from the head, not from the heart. So stay calm, hold your ground, and try to judge the heart.

Encountering a bear

If you do see a bear at a distance, enjoy watching it, and either back off or wait for it to leave. Do not approach it. Bears have a strong sense of personal space - a distance that varies from bear to bear from which they won't back down. If you end up inside that defensive perimeter, which may be anywhere from ten to fifty feet wide, you are likely to experience a combination of highly intimidating behaviours, including the squared-off lip or long face, jaw popping, huffing, swatting and false-charging. Some experts regard these behaviours as fear or stress-related. Kilham regards them as defensive or motivational displays separate from the bear's mood, which may be fearful or stressed. Or it may not be. His experience suggests that you should observe the bear's mood before it squares off its lip. That's the true mood of the animal you are dealing with. Everything that follows the squared-off lip is defensive or motivational display.

You can't judge the nature of an individual encounter between a bear and a human on the basis of whether the bear is displaying one behaviour or another, for a bear may use the same displays at different intensities in different contexts.

Having fixed interpretations of any individual bear behaviour can be dangerous, not only to a person encountering a bear but also to the bear itself. It's the escalation of fear that leads to bad decisions. There have been a number of bear attacks that could have been avoided if the situation hadn't been misread. Some victims have dropped to the ground into protective positions because they thought the bear was about to attack. That, unfortunately, is a self-fulfilling prophecy; they were attacked. Bears, like dogs and many other animals, will enforce their dominance when an adversary displays weakness. A bear, particularly a dominant bear, may just test your resolve.

Black bears take eye-contact very seriously as a position of strength. If your eyes are on the bear, they'll usually avert their stare. If their eyes hold on you, it's a sign they intend to motivate you. If they then walk toward you, you better leave!

So what do you do if somehow you get too close to a bear? According to Kilham, stop moving and use your eyes. Keep them directly on the bear. Use them to study the bear so you can determine its attitude toward you. By keeping your eyes glued to it, you'll also be letting the bear know that you're not trying to motivate it. If you feel compelled to back up, do it when the bear is relaxed, and keep your eyes on the bear. But chances are the bear will move away first.

It can be difficult and confusing to have a laundry list of preconditioned responses to certain bear behaviours, read as much as possible about these fascinating creatures. Look for them in their woods, and try to keep them out of your backyard.

If you are lucky enough to see a bear at close range, try to keep this simple message in your head: Hold your ground, stay calm, maintain eye contact, and let the situation resolve itself. Your experience will be extremely intimidating and exhilarating, but what you'll get in exchange will be the adrenaline rush of a lifetime.

Watch Kilham on YouTube.