LAKE PLACID, N.Y. (AP) - A black bear has been euthanized after it repeatedly raided backpackers’ campsites in the Adirondack High Peaks seeking food, according to the state Department of Environmental Conservation.
The bear destroyed several unoccupied tents seeking food, entered a lean-to occupied by hikers and aggressively approached forest rangers, DEC spokesman David Winchell told the Adirondack Daily Enterprise. It was killed by DEC staff on Monday.
Wilderness campsites in the popular Lake Colden area in the High Peaks were temporarily closed on Sunday because of the bear’s activities. Winchell said the bear approached two hikers who were boiling water in a lean-to last week and ate the food from their open canister, a rigid plastic food container required in the eastern High Peaks Wilderness to thwart bears.
Winchell said the bear had become increasingly aggressive since 2018 and was determined to be a threat to public safety.
Nuisance bears are rarely trapped and moved because a relocated bear often travels as much as 100 miles to return to its feeding site, according to DEC. If it can’t find the original site, it will seek new human food sources.
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