The Council of Agriculture’s Forestry Bureau yesterday warned hikers not to leave food in mountain areas, after Formosan black bears reportedly entered Taitung County’s Siangyang Hut (向陽山屋) to search for food on Thursday and Friday nights.
The hut was built for hikers 2.85km above sea level in the 4.3km section of the county’s Jiaming Lake National Trail (嘉明湖國家步道), the bureau said.
Formosan black bears, a protected omnivorous species that mainly eats plants, tend to shun areas with human activity, but they might be attracted by human food when they cannot find sufficient food in the wild, it said.
The Taitung Forest District Office received reports on Thursday and Friday from hikers, who said that they spotted three Formosan black bears separately invading the hut’s kitchen in search of food.
Whether there were three separate bears could not be confirmed, but their appearances were reportedly quite different, office Director Liu Chiung-lien (劉瓊蓮) said by telephone yesterday.
It was not the first time that bears have been spotted by hikers in the area, given that the hut’s surroundings are a hot spot of bear activity, she said.
The bears can be found in areas in altitudes from 500m to 3km, with places at 2km being their summertime favorites, she added.
In 2016, an increase in bear sightings near the hut, due to hikers leaving food in the structure and nearby trees, unnerved the office, which closed the hut for cleaning from July to September that year, Liu said.
To avoid encounters with bears, hikers should not litter garbage or leftover food and are advised to walk with companions and make noise when hiking, the bureau said.
If a bear is encountered, hikers must stay calm and try to quietly and slowly retreat as soon as possible, as running or yelling in front of a bear is dangerous, it added.
The bureau is to apply pepper spray near the hut to keep bears away from hikers and install more infrared cameras to better monitor the animals’ activities, Liu said, adding that office personnel would also increase patrols in the area.
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