Why are we seeing more bears this summer?

A juvenile black bear apparently doesn’t like our ‘No Trespassing’ sign in our backyard in the Town of Clinton, Dutchess County

DEC offers some input to the increase in recent sightings

A few weeks ago, our neighborhood group chat dinged throughout the day with updates: “Bear at our house an hour ago. Now at the neighbors…” “We took in the bird feeders.” “My husband scared it off.” “Are the garbage cans okay?”

If your neighborhood has been rustling with an increase in black bear activity lately, you are not alone.

According to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, most bears spotted this time of year in unlikely or unusual places not typically seen – from backyards and suburban streets to residential communities – are either young males learning to live on their own, older males looking for a mate or mother bears looking to feed her cubs.

“Juvenile male bears that denned up with their moms last winter got booted out this spring,” according to DEC biologists. “No matter how big and furry they look, these bears are about 18 months old and are just trying to figure out how to live on their own. Juvenile males need to disperse and find a place to call home where they can find food, shelter, and eventually a mate. Juvenile female bears, however, are often allowed to move in next door to their moms, so most wandering bears are males.”

“These young bears are often lonely and lack the fully developed survival skills of an adult bear,” BearWise biologists note. “They are also hungry and inquisitive and will check out anything that seems as if it might be a source of food. Like human teenagers, they are at a very impressionable stage of life. If they quickly discover that human places should be avoided, they will be forced to learn to support themselves as wild bears. If they find the backyard pickings are easy, they start down a road that is often a dead end for them.

Sightings may also include adult male bears who are roaming far and wide in search of a mate, biologists say. Bears may mate several times in the early summer with the potential for cubs from a single liter to have different fathers, but “female bears rarely leave their home ranges; for the good of the gene pool, they let the males come find them.”

In addition to boys on the prowl, mother bears may be on the move to find food for their little ones: “Mother bears may have between one and six cubs depending on her for their survival. Natural spring and early summer food sources such as grasses and developing plants are just not as calorie-dense and nutritious as the nuts and fruits that ripen later in the year. So mother bears often need to travel further from their dens looking for food.”

“Cubs take after their parents in several ways: they are super-smart, learn quickly, and are very adaptable. So if mom teaches them to raid the garbage or bat down bird feeders or sends them in through pet doors to see what’s in the kitchen, it creates a whole new generation of problems for people and bears.

The best advice: Don’t approach any bears you see. Don’t intentionally feed bears. Make sure there’s nothing around your property or home that will attract bears including making sure to clean up around the BBQ, not leaving food in any cars parked outside, not feeding the birds if bears are spotted in your area, and bringing out your garbage cans the morning of pick-up. And tell your neighbors if you see bear activity so they can prepare as well.

Courtesy of BearWise® |  www.BearWise.org

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