Bear No. 317 just simply struck out. A mother with two cubs, she was captured about a month ago in Boulder, a Colorado college town of about 100,000 that sits in a scenic valley guarded by the Flatirons, a group of striking 300 million-year-old mountains with raw rock faces.
This is rugged country, and that’s why No. 317 was here — it is also ideal black bear habitat. And when wayward bruins rub up against suburbia and the push of development, the bear usually loses.
This sow had first ventured into town around the end of August with her cubs in tow, no doubt searching for food since a harsh freeze late in 2014, followed by a killing frost in May, had decimated the natural sources that usually sustain the bears in the wild. When she got too close for the comfort of some, game officers were called, and the mother and her cubs were tranquilized, ear-tagged, and relocated west of town.
But hunger, or a bear’s innate ability to traverse long distances and return to known food sources, brought her back to Boulder, where nearly 50,000 acres of open space and nature preserves create the wide corridor ribbons that wildlife can utilize to move about. Once this mother bear repeated her earlier transgressions with behavior deemed too aggressive for the townsfolk, that was strike two, and in Colorado, strike two for a wayward bear brings the death penalty.
She was tranquilized again, moved to a nearby state facility, and euthanized with a single shot to the neck. Guilty of being a bear, in bear country, and doing what bears do, searching for food.
“We feel that she was dangerous and that people were at risk, so we removed her,” Colorado Parks and Wildlife officer Kristin Cannon said in a video post explaining the case.
Ohio does not have many human-bear conflicts, because the Buckeye State has few bears. Small populations are believed to be scattered throughout the hill country in the southeastern part of the state and in the northeastern counties that border Pennsylvania.
Ohio had 34 “nuisance situations” with bears in 2014, according to conflict wildlife biologist Geoff Westerfield, who said commercial bee hives, along with bird feeders and deer feeders used by hunters, got the attention of the bears.
“Bears don’t do anything different here than they do anywhere else,” he said. “They seem to be moving further west than they have in the past and now are getting into Cuyahoga County.”
Mr. Westerfield said there is a “three strikes” policy in Ohio that would call for possibly euthanizing a “nuisance” bear that had to be moved three times, but no case has approached that level of severity. Mr. Westerfield said they have not had to trap and transplant a single bear this year.
“We’ve never gotten to two strikes with a bear,” he said.
Northwest Ohio
Black bears have made sporadic appearances in northwest Ohio in the past. As recently as February, 2013, bear scat and prints were confirmed by wildlife officers in Seneca County, but there were no confirmed sightings at the time and experts said it was likely a young male moving through the region. Young male bears will range hundreds of miles in search of mates and suitable habitat.
In 2005, a young male black bear was sighted in western Lucas County by a Norfolk Southern railroad engineer as the bear crossed the tracks near Albon Road. Several other sightings were reported in the area, and two wildlife officers also saw the bruin in Fulton County. There were also reports of a black bear being sighted in Hillsdale County, Michigan, at the time, and it was believed to be the same animal.
While black bears might travel through the area occasionally, it is not likely they will remain in Lucas County or the rest of northwest Ohio for very long since the area lacks the large forested sections bears prefer and the expanse of habitat they require.
“We just don’t have the preferred territory that bears are looking for, since the region is mostly agricultural,” said John Windau of the Ohio Division of Wildlife. “We’re not saying they will never do it, because these are animals and they are somewhat unpredictable at times, but bears need a lot of area, and even something like Oak Openings just doesn’t provide adequate range for them. We’ll probably see young males pass through at times, but with no females around and very little suitable habitat, they will very likely just move on.”
In Pennsylvania
Many of Ohio’s black bears are likely migrants from neighboring Pennsylvania, which has a healthy population of about 18,000 bears.
Mark Ternent, Black Bear Project Leader for the Pennsylvania Game Commission, said that as Pennsylvania’s bears disperse, friction zones develop, especially in the outlying areas of suburbia around the major cities, such as Pittsburgh and Philadelphia.
“We have human-bear conflicts everywhere, but they happen most where more people live. Bears are moving into areas where they weren’t 30 years ago, but at the same time we see this expansion of human development and that’s when the conflicts arise,” Mr. Ternent said. “We call them problem bears, but it is usually people that are the problem.”
Pennsylvania wildlife officers handle more than 1,000 bear conflict cases a year, Mr. Ternent said, and the state uses considerable restraint in its bear-management approach, euthanizing “less than 15” bears a year.
“We don’t kill a lot of bears, but we move a lot of bears,” he said. “A lot of what we deal with concerning bears is just due to poor behavior on the part of people. If we could take the people out of the bear territory, we’d see much less of this.”
Michigan, elsewhere
Most of Michigan’s black bears are in the remote Upper Peninsula, so conflicts with humans are not a big issue, according to Kevin Swanson, a wildlife specialist for the Department of Natural Resources. He said the state has a protocol for dealing with “nuisance bears” and only repeat offenders that are deemed a danger to humans are subject to being euthanized.
“Most of the complaints we hear involve bears getting into bird feeders or garbage cans, but once those food sources are removed, the problem usually resolves itself,” he said.
Mr. Swanson said he believes just three black bears have been euthanized in Michigan this year.
Steven Dobey, bear biologist for the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources, agreed that the onus is on the humans to alter their behavior if they move into bear country or live in areas that bears might find provide suitable habitat.
“People can prevent 99 percent of all human-bear conflicts by removing access to these food attractants,” Mr. Dobey said.
He said that in Kentucky, human-bear conflicts are handled on a case-by-case basis since a wide range of circumstances are often involved.
In its 19 years of work, Tennessee-based Appalachian Bear Rescue has rehabilitated 223 black bear cubs that were either orphans or malnourished and released those bears back into the wild. Dana Dodd said her organization stresses the responsibilities that accompany people living in bear country.
“Bears are born to eat and they must have food,” she said. “Human food kills bears because once it becomes familiar with people and those food sources, the bear is always going to be on the losing end of that deal.”
West Virginia is encountering more human-bear conflicts as that state’s black bear population increases and bears occupy their former range, at the same time that development is shifting from urban centers to more rural settings, according to Colin P. Carpenter, Black Bear Project leader for the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources.
Mr. Carpenter said there are bears in every county in the state and nuisance complaints involving black bears will run between 800 and 1,600 per year. As in the case throughout black bear range, the availability of natural food sources is closely tied to the rate of human-bear conflicts.
“In most cases, it’s just bears being bears,” he said. Mr. Carpenter said West Virginia euthanized 84 bears in 2014.
In Indiana, black bears are a native species but one that is now listed as “exotic” and protected under law. The state has no known population of black bears, and when a wayward bruin from Michigan wandered into the Hoosier State in June of this year, it was an instant celebrity. Prior to that, the last confirmed black bear sighting in Indiana was in 1871.
Colorado controversy
The case of Colorado’s bear No. 317 created a mini-firestorm, and an online petition was started in an attempt to save the mother bear, but it failed. The sow’s two cubs, estimated to be about 10 months old, are being evaluated and might be moved to a rehabilitation center.
Brenda Lee, who started the Boulder Bear Coalition eight years ago, said she does not blame the wildlife officers who are called in to deal with bear conflict issues.
“The situation with bear 317 was very distressing, and this community gets very upset with seeing bears being killed, but the real problem is people learning how to live with bears,” she said. “Mountain areas are continually being built up, and the bears are getting pushed out.”
Ms. Lee said she has found that the municipalities in bear country need to take more proactive steps to prevent human-bear conflicts, instead of simply waiting for complaints and reacting.
“If we are going to live here, we need to do a much better job of keeping them out by taking away the food sources that attract them in the first place. Let’s not roll out the red carpet and then be shocked when bears show up,” she said. “We have to all be smarter about living with bears.”
Ms. Lee recommends more education in the schools in bear range, saying the kids will bring the message home about using bear-resistant trash cans, keeping pet food inside, and taking down bird feeders when bears are active.
Matt Robbins, public information officer for Colorado Parks and Wildlife, said the state has about 20,000 black bears, and as some of the major cities swell into bear habitat, the number of conflicts spikes. He said Colorado also sees many cases of bears being struck by cars, illegal feeding of bears, and bears injured by poaching.
“We have to put bears down for a number of reasons. Our officers spend a lot of time moving bears — hundreds of them have been moved already this year — but there are some cases where bears have to be euthanized. That’s not our goal, but it is a matter of living in Colorado and living with bears.”
The number of bears put down by Colorado wildlife officials is trending upward. In the five years between 2009 and 2013, they euthanized 529 bears, according to the most recent data available. That compares with 173 bears euthanized by the state in the five prior years, 2004-2008. In 2014, Mr. Robbins said 172 bears were euthanized, and the figures for this year will likely be higher.
Meredith C. Carroll is a columnist for the Aspen Times who has lived in Colorado bear country for 12 years and has written about human-bear conflict issues numerous times.
“They are fascinating animals and nobody wants to see a bear euthanized, but the more they are around us, the more it costs them,” she said. “Ultimately, I think it’s a people problem — we’re in their territory, they’re not in ours.”
Contact Blade outdoors editor Matt Markey at: mmarkey@theblade.com or 419-724-6068.
First Published November 15, 2015, 5:00 a.m.
