Indigenous Mountain Communities on Alert With Bear Sightings on the Rise

A rare glimpse into the daily life of a Formosan black bear living through winter dormancy. The videos of two endangered Formosan black bears released back into the wild, each with a satellite-connected camera on its collar. And a startling finding. The bears have been taking unusual routes, even entering one indigenous village. Taiwan's forestry agency estimates there are over a thousand Formosan black bears in the wild in Taiwan, an encouraging increase from some years before for this vulnerable species. But the number of bears intruding into human spaces is also rising. One biologist says humans are precisely why bears are straying from their natural habitat. Cameras have caught them tearing through plastic bags and eating leftover food scraps from lunch boxes. To stop bears from rummaging for food in human habitats, authorities have sent out bear-proof dumpsters and put up electric fences to ward them off. The forestry agency is also launching a bear reporting system for sightings and incidents of conflict with humans. As global temperatures keep rising and the line between human and bear habitats blurs, officials hope to better prepare locals to coexist with these powerful predators.