U.S. landowners hoping to discourage grizzly bears from foraging on their property can now legally shoot the animals with paintball guns.
It’s one of several deterrent methods clarified in the new “Grizzly Bear Hazing Guidelines,” issued recently by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The guidelines differentiate between harassment, which is illegal under the Endangered Species Act, and hazing.
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Appropriate hazing techniques, allowed within distances of 200 yards, range from banging pots and blaring vehicle horns to shooting marbles and stones at grizzly bears with slingshots (in the rump area; not near the face).
Landowners have discovered that paintball guns are a reasonably effective deterrent, but those who have used this method have been operating in a legal gray area until now.
Paintballs are listed in a separate category in the hazing guidelines. Landowners are advised to use rubber balls as opposed to balls filled with paint, but that’s not a requirement. The appropriate shooting range is 30 to 150 feet.
The USFWS notes that “Bears are attracted to paintball residue, therefore the area must be cleaned up after the use of paintballs.”
The use of bangers and cracker shells, projectiles that are fired from a weapon and explode in flight, also is approved under the new guidelines. These devices must explode safely before reaching the bear.
Anne Smith, with the advocacy group Shoot’em With A Camera, told Wyoming Public Media that the new guidelines make sense given that the alternative to scaring bears from private property sometimes includes killing them for livestock predation.
“I think whatever it takes to deter the bears from coming onto private property is necessary as long as it doesn’t harm the bear,” Smith said. “Because, as we say, a fed bear is a dead bear.”
The Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks department applauded the new rules, stating on Facebook:
“For years we have been trying to get paintballing approved and a new federal order does just that. The new Department of Interior Secretarial order has allowed the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) to expand its landowner grizzly bear deterrence guidelines – with paintballing and cracker shells explicitly approved for public use.”
“Many people have been using these aversive conditioning methods for years, but previously we were operating in a legal gray zone – this order now specifically allows landowners to use these useful and effective conflict prevention tools! Hazing is imperative for keeping bears afraid of people and away from our residences and infrastructure.”
–Grizzly bear images are courtesy of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service