Millionaire Lake Tahoe homeowners deploy risky new strategy against escalating bear crisis

Forget security systems, Nevada wildlife officials have found a fur-covered solution to Lake Tahoe’s growing black bear problem.

As wealthy homeowners around the lake battle increasingly brazen bears breaking into houses, the Nevada Department of Wildlife (NDOW) has been relying on two highly trained Karelian bear dogs, Badger and Banjo, to send the unwelcome visitors running.

The shaggy canines work alongside state biologists to chase bears out of neighborhoods, flush them from crawl spaces and urban dens, track injured animals and help return them to the wild, all while teaching the predators that humans are bad news.

“[The bears’] experiences for the most part around people have been positive,” longtime NDOW bear biologist Carl Lackey told The Nevada Independent. “We’re just trying to give them a bad experience around people.”

Unlike some wildlife agencies that haze bears with rubber bullets, bean bag rounds or tasers, Nevada has leaned heavily on its four-legged specialists.

“They’re a tool that a lot of agencies just haven’t endorsed. You can’t just assign somebody a dog,” Lackey said. “It has to be somebody who wants one of these dogs and is willing to put in the time.”

The breed, originally developed in Finland and Russia to hunt large game, has become an unlikely weapon as bear encounters have climbed alongside Nevada’s booming black bear population.

Once nearly wiped out by habitat destruction and illegal hunting, the state’s black bears dwindled to about 30 animals by the 1980s.

Conservation efforts fueled a dramatic rebound, and wildlife officials now estimate there are between 600 and 700 bears roaming western Nevada.

That comeback has also meant more run-ins with people.

Lackey, who recently retired after nearly 33 years with NDOW, launched the state’s bear dog program about 25 years ago after seeing Karelian bear dogs featured on a National Geographic program.

“I saw these guys working a bear, and I thought ‘this is a great idea,’” he said. “They have this innate ability to work with the bear on the ground, more or less boxing with the bear.”

Today, the department responds to dozens of bear incidents across Northern Nevada every year, capturing and releasing about 40 bears annually. Instead of hauling them far away, officials now release most near where they were found after research showed relocated bears almost always found their way back.

“Every single one of those bears returned,” Lackey said of an early study tracking bears moved out of the Tahoe Basin.

The dogs have helped end some unforgettable encounters.

In one case, Lackey responded after a bear broke into the Lake Tahoe home of David Coverdale, the lead singer of 1980s rock band Whitesnake, took a swim in the indoor pool and wandered toward the home’s recording studio.

After trapping the wrong bear, Lackey watched the real intruder casually stroll past him and head back toward the house. Banjo was released and quickly chased the bear up a tree.

Badger also cornered another repeat offender inside the Tahoe Biltmore in Crystal Bay during renovations, trapping it near the famed Breeze Bar once frequented by Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr.

Still, wildlife officials say even the fearless dogs can’t solve the problem on their own.

“The dogs are amazing tools to haze the bears, but they aren’t going to make a permanent behavior change,” biologist Becca Carniello told The Nevada Independent. “The only permanent long-term solution comes from people securing their attractants.”

Lackey put it even more bluntly: “We’re trying to change the narrative. People are the issue, not the bear.”

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