Money-strapped Wildlife Department urges care in reporting critters

With just enough money to pay only for the bare necessities, the Nevada Department of Wildlife wants Silver State residents to know that not every confrontation with an untamed critter warrants a call to the game warden.

One published account suggested a bear must be inside a home, not just near one, to prompt a response, but Doug Nielsen, public affairs supervisor for the department's Southern Nevada office, said that is not quite true.

"Nothing in our policies says the bear has to be in a house," Nielsen said. "A bear rummaging through garbage or acting aggressive is going to be addressed."

Which is not to say that things aren't tight. The department's main funding comes from hunting and fishing licenses sold and from taxes on sales of guns and ammunition, fishing and archery equipment.

Still, the department's annual general fund budget is expected to fall under $500,000 next year, down more than $1 million from 2006 levels. The department's 2011 budget is $721,000.

Nielsen said a 2010 plan to request about $1 million to handle "growing conflicts" between people and wildlife was scrapped because of budget problems.

The conflicts, he said, are a much bigger issue in Northern Nevada than they are in the southern end of the state.

"Bears are definitely an issue in the triangle between Reno, Carson (City) and Tahoe," Nielsen said. A state biologist there manages bears and tracks their movements.

"If someone calls to report a bear in the neighborhood, we're going to see that as a public safety issue and respond." Public safety is the theme regarding the department's response policies regardless of budgets, Nielsen said.

Coyotes are the potential public safety issue in Southern Nevada, he said.

"They present the most common human and wildlife interactions,'' he said. "They're drawn to the valley because we develop these beautiful, lush neighborhoods with golf courses that go back into the mountains.

"They attract rabbits and quail and other things coyotes eat. They have hard hunting in the desert, but they know down there they can have their choice of fat rabbits. Where are you going to hunt?"

And coyotes aren't picky eaters.

"People who let their cats prowl the neighborhood really put their pets in peril," he said.

So when should an interaction with a wild critter prompt a call?

"Any time you see a wild animal acting strange, acting unafraid of humans or unusually aggressive, call."

On the other hand, Nielsen said it isn't uncommon for people to make unwarranted calls.

"You'd be surprised at the calls we get," he said, recounting one instance in which a man called to complain a rabbit ate the petals off his rose bush; another caller said a dove had rested on a power line "longer than she thought it should" and requested the department send a veterinarian to examine the bird.

The agency's website, www.ndow.org, has a section dedicated to teaching folks how to avoid or minimize human-wildlife conflicts.

Nielsen said that people should understand that a wild animal in its natural habitat isn't a public safety threat.

"If you call us because you saw a coyote or a mountain lion in the desert, we're not coming," Nielsen said.

Contact Doug McMurdo at dmcmurdo@reviewjournal.com or 702-224-5512.