LAKE TAHOE, Nev. – Two of Nevada Department of Wildlife’s (NDOW) top employees look a little shaggy. They wear long fur coats year-round, and they don’t collect a salary. Meet Badger and Banjo, Karelian Bear...

“[The bears’] experiences for the most part around people have been positive,” Lackey said. “We’re just trying to give them a bad experience around people.”

The dogs also assist in hazing other wildlife such as mountain lions and deer, wriggle beneath houses with Lackey and Carniello to remove bears in crawl spaces and serve as ambassadors for NDOW and the biologists as they work to educate people about how to make their properties less attractive to bears.

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Conservation efforts and habitat restoration regeneration worked, and in the 1990s, Nevada’s bear population exploded. Nevada’s bear population now hovers between 600 and 700 across western Nevada, from far northern Washoe County down to the state line around Topaz and east to near Walker Lake.

Lackey and Carniello, along with Badger and Banjo, respond to dozens of bear-related incidents across Northern Nevada each year when bears exhibit unusual behavior or are somewhere they shouldn’t be, such as inside a house. Most of the bears are captured and released back into the wild, near where they were picked up, with Badger and Banjo’s help.

“They really add a level of comfort and safety for us when we’re in some of these close situations,” Carniello said. “This can be a really challenging job … and it’s really cool to have someone with you who adores you.”

Man’s Best Coworker Too

  • imaqtpie@sh.itjust.works
    82·
    3 days ago

    Wow, super interesting article. I love how they simply describe it as hazing the wildlife. Pretty sure I’ve never heard that term outside of a human-human context, but it’s a funny way to describe what they’re trying to do.

    This anecdote was also funny

    Lackey once responded to a call from Tahoe, where the lead singer of the 1980s hair band Whitesnake had a house. A bear had broken into the house, swam in the indoor pool and was ambling down the hall toward the recording studio. By the time Lackey made it up there the bear was gone, so he set a trap. A couple days later, a bear was caught.

    When Lackey arrived at the property and looked in the trap, he noticed it was a different bear than the prior one. As Lackey was dealing with the trapped bear, the bear he intended to trap walked past, ignoring Lackey and his bear dogs, and headed for the house. Lackey released the dogs, and they immediately chased the bear up a tree.

    I guess this kind of thing happens when you build a 10,000 foot estate in a remote area that was formerly wilderness until fairly recently. Good for the bears, ransack that house for all it’s worth. Late 80s music has to be among the worst eras in popular music history. That shit has not aged well, and I resent the fact that this dude became a multimillionaire from that bland garbage.

      • supersquirrel@sopuli.xyzOP
        5·
        3 days ago

        I very lightly do this to deer when they are hanging out all sketchy at night right next to fast country roads with that look in their eye like you know they are just itching to get spooked and leap out in front of a car.

        Cars are too quiet, I roll down my window and yell at em to get out of the road.

    • ToastedRavioli@midwest.social
      2·
      2 days ago

      Just wait until you find out that when bears are causing trouble they get labeled “problem bears”

      Like, I think the bear is just being a bear, but hes the problem somehow smh