Bears getting too comfortable living near people

CANTON, Conn. — Tom Bradley had grown accustomed to seeing black bears walk through his Connecticut neighborhood, but this month he was alarmed to find something trying to turn a doorknob to enter his house.

He used his key fob to set off his car horn, to scare away whatever was in his garage. When he went outside, he saw a bear and two cubs that had been trying to get into his mudroom.

“I think what is happening is, the bears are learning,” Bradley said. “It was sort of a step from going outside to get in the garbage, to going into the garage where the cans are, and now they are moving into the homes because they have discovered that is where the food is.”

Bears have been encroaching on humans in record numbers this year in Connecticut, which has seen increases in the black bear population like other nearby states and is the only one that does not allow bear hunting. There have been 24 reports of bears breaking into homes and businesses in Connecticut this year, much more than the yearly average of about six, said Paul Rego, a state wildlife biologist.

It’s one of several states that have been grappling with how best to minimize encounters between bears and humans, including discussions of expanded hunts and improved garbage-management systems.

Maine has the largest black bear population on the East Coast at about 36,000 animals, but the number of nuisance bear complaints in the state has held about steady, averaging about 500 per year. The Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife said the number of complaints usually correlates to the abundance of natural foods, such as nuts and berries.

The state uses a popular fall hunting season to try to control the growth of the population. But Bob Humphrey, a wildlife biologist and hunter in the state, said it might be time to consider adding a spring hunt, because the bear population just keeps growing.

New Jersey restarted regulated bear hunting in 2003 after nearly three decades without one. But this year, Gov. Phil Murphy barred black bear hunting on stateowned lands and said the state will pursue non-lethal methods to manage the population, such as better ways to manage garbage.

Hunt supporters, such as John Rogalo, vice president of the New Jersey State Federation of Sportsmen’s Clubs, said the hunt has worked to teach bears to avoid humans. He worries that trend will be reversed if the hunt is ended.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission provides grants to counties, mostly for A black bear explores the yard of Steve and Julie Sonlin of Avon, Conn., in July. The couple say they get visits from bears several times a year and that the animals even have been in their hot tub. bear-resistant trash containers. Some of that grant money came from fees raised from a 2015 bear hunt, the only one the state has held in more than two decades.

In recent months, bears in Connecticut’s suburbs have shredded a car’s interior, wandered into a liquor store, even awakened residents in their bedrooms.

“We have many cases where bears have become very comfortable living close to humans and not being impressed by barking dogs and yelling people,” Rego said.

Bear encounters are up in some other states, as well. New York has received 1,282 nuisance bear reports this year, such as the animals getting into garbage or bird feeders, compared with 700 a year ago, said the state Department of Environmental Conservation. Officials believe drought conditions earlier this summer, which led to fewer berries, might be a factor.

But drought wasn’t an issue in Connecticut, Rego said. A study last year by the University of Connecticut showed the bears are actually choosing to make their homes near people.

As the bear population grows, the animals are finding perfect living conditions in exurban areas, where there are plenty of woods but also homes every acre or two, providing access to easy food sources, said Tracy Rittenhouse, an assistant professor of wildlife ecology at UConn.

“We have this perfect mixture of forest and human houses and the bears are moving into these places,” she said. “It’s not people moving into where bears occur, it’s bears moving into where people occur.”