Black bears are multiplying and on the move across North America, snooping around cities where they've been a rarity, becoming roadkill and leading states to start or expand hunting seasons, according to AP. When bears come into contact with humans, they typically just create a nuisance, by raiding garbage, bird feeders, orchards, crops and beehives _ or by scaring residents taking out the trash or heading to the tool shed. But as bears enter more urban areas, the number of highway accidents has also increased, creating a new danger for drivers usually accustomed to slowing down just for deer. Bear numbers across the northeastern United States are at or near record levels, said John McDonald Jr., a wildlife research specialist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service based in Massachusetts. «For the first couple weeks of June, males will be looking for females and last year's cubs will leave their mothers and head off in random directions trying to find their own home range,» McDonald said. A bear may wander 100 miles (160 kilometers) or more looking for a new home, he said. The U.S. bear population rose from about 156,000 in 1989 to about 227,000 in 2001, according to a report published by McDonald in 2007. Two bears _ a yearling and a 300-pound (136-kilogram) adult _ were killed recently on highways around Buffalo. In suburban Philadelphia, two bears were spotted in recent weeks, forcing lockdowns at several elementary schools. One bear was bowled over by a car, but both bear and driver went on their way. In New York, the number of bears killed by vehicles annually has increased from 14 to 61 over the past 20 years. In Pennsylvania, there are about 200 bear-vehicle collisions a year. That compares to about 50,000 deer-vehicle collisions a year in New York and nearly 100,000 a year in Pennsylvania, McDonald said. «Bears are more abundant now than they have been in hundreds of years,» said McDonald, who completed doctoral research on bears. «They're filling in states like Ohio and Kentucky that historically didn't have bears for hundreds of years.» Ohio's bear population is estimated at about 60. Kentucky, with a bear population estimated between 130 and 350, will hold its first bear hunting season in a century this year, for two days in December. Twenty-eight states have bear hunting seasons, and some, including New York, have expanded them in response to rising bear populations. Rogers, who has spent 42 years closely observing bears in their habitat, attributes the rise in black bear population to conversion of farmland to forest and to the fact that the animals are no longer poisoned, trapped, or gut-shot as vermin. «People are realizing they're not the dangerous animals we once thought,» Rogers said. Conflicts arise when people enter bear habitat, or vice versa. «There are bears that take up residence in suburban areas and lose their fear of people,» McDonald said. «Problems range from destroying birdfeeders to breaking into people's homes.» To prevent problems with bears, wildlife agencies advise people not to feed them, to stop feeding birds in springtime, to scrub the grease off barbecue grills, to clean garbage cans with ammonia and to store trash in secure containers. With people increasingly moving into forested areas, conflicts with bears could increase, Rogers said. «The attitudes of these people will determine the future of the bears,» Rogers said. «People are much better educated today, and the more educated they are, it seems the more appreciation they have for wildlife.»
