Summertime means camping time for a lot of people. The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife wants to remind everyone not to feed the bears.
It is illegal in the state of Washington to feed or attract large carnivores. Violating this law may result in a $1,025 fine.
WDFW says people will often leave food out for bears so they can take pictures of them, observe them or show them to friends.
This can lead to bears associating people with food, which can cause them to lose their wariness of people.
WDFW says teaching bears that they can get food from people increases the chance of conflicts between bears and people.
Over 90% of these types of conflicts come from bears being conditioned to associate people with food.
You can learn more about living with bears and preventing conflict by clicking here.
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