DEEP biologist talks about the ‘bear’ facts

BARKHAMSTED — On Friday, Sept. 17, state Department of Energy and Environment (DEEP) biologist, Jason Hawley hosted a discussion on the history of black bears in Connecticut and how to live bear smart at the pavilion in People’s State Forest. 

Hawley, a native of Hartland, previously studied wolves and has been studying bears for 12 years. After living in Massachusetts and out west, he returned to Connecticut to accept his current position.

At the beginning of his discussion, Hawley passed around collars used for tracking bears as he presented a slideshow with photos and videos taken by himself and co-workers at DEEP.

Bear populations

According to Hawley, bear sightings started to be reported to the DEEP in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s.

During that time a young male black bear population started to emerge in Connecticut, traveling from places such as Western Massachusetts and New York.

“Bears are very good dispersers,” Hawley said. “They can swim well, climb well and they can move great distances. Once the habitat returned, and forests started growing back, we started seeing more of them. By the mid-1980s, we had regular sightings of females with cubs, so that tells us there are bears living here and reproducing here. We knew we had an established bear population in the state.”

Hawley said that male bears tend to disperse farther than females do.

While females overlap their mother’s home range, males will tend to move within a 100 miles from their mother’s home range.

Bear habitat 

“The most important thing, for all wildlife, if you don’t have the habitat, the species cannot survive there,” Hawley said. “In Connecticut we have the habitat. In a state like Connecticut the second most important thing, especially with this many people as we have here, is the public attitude we have towards bears.” Hawley said after conducting surveys of state residents, the DEEP has concluded that the majority of the public residents of Connecticut do want bears in the state. “They are a native species and the majority of citizens do want bears here, so that is a good thing,” he said.

Hawley said that bears have a relatively low reproductive rate, reproducing every other year. However, bears counteract low reproductivity rates with a high survival rate. “In Connecticut we found that first year survival for cubs is close to 80 percent, which for a wild animal is almost unheard of,” Hawley said. “In Connecticut, the bear population is on the rise, increasing close to 10 percent annually. The DEEP uses sighting reports to obtain an idea as to where in Connecticut the bear population ranges, with Barkhamsted and Hartland still being the ‘core area’ for most of Connecticut’s bears.” Hawley said the DEEP uses GPS collars and trail cameras to monitor reproduction, number of cubs, first year survival rates, home range and resource selection. The bears have to be “darted,” and safely administered a drug to allow workers to complete this task. “We don’t want them to go running far away because we bring them back to the den so it’s quite an operation,” Hawley said. “Most older females won’t run, because their maternal instinct is so strong, it will in many cases outweigh their fear of human situations they will sit tight and stay with their cubs and hope you leave.”

Connecticut adult male bears, who are fully grown and sexually mature can range in weight anywhere from 250 to 600 pounds, while females can range anywhere from a little over 100 pounds to over 300 pounds. According to Hawley, the biggest female bear they have encountered was 390 pounds, “which is massive,” he said. Bears can endure a lifespan of 30 to 40 years at best.

Bears den around late November and early December, and generally stay in the den until April. Females will see one to five cubs per litter, weighing less than 12 ounces at birth. “They stay in the den because the cubs can’t move around or fend for themselves,” Hawley said. Mothers will spend 100 percent of their time nursing and sleeping when in the den.

Food sources

In Connecticut, skunk cabbage is probably the most important food source of the black bear. 

“When they are in the den their stomachs shrink down to the size of a softball they haven’t eaten anything for six months, so they start off light,” Hawley said. “It is also one of the only natural food sources available in the spring.”

In the late spring and summer, blueberries, blackberries and raspberries become an important food source. However, their most important food source in Connecticut is acorns.

“There have been studies done where you can predict cub survival based on the mass production of acorns, their fitness is directly tied to acorn production,” Hawley said. He said that beech nuts are an important secondary food source, and during years where acorn production is low, they will switch over to beech nuts.

He said bears are opportunistic feeders and they will roll over logs and rocks looking for insects.

“There also scavengers, winter kill deer is a great source of food for them,” Hawley said. “In the winter where there is really no food for them, especially in areas with lots of snow, bears go into dens.”

Hawley pointed out that bears are not true hibernators, as most people believe them to be. “Bears actually go into a state of torpor where their respiration drops, their heart rate drops, their body temperature drops, but not to the extent of true hibernators, like chipmunks or bats where it takes them a while to get going,” he said. “A bear is always awake in their den.” 

Hawley laughed as he told the crowd bears do not always use “Hollywood” dens such as caves or big rocks and bear dens can be constructed laurel nests, or the inside of a tree.

“Problem bears are usually problem people, although there are a few bears that are problem bears by nature, but very rare,” Hawley said. “Most of the ‘problem bear’ reportings stem from people feeding bears, whether it be intentionally or unintentionally.”

He said that bird feeders, outdoor pet feeders and bee hives without electric fencing can especially be a great snack for a bear.

“The bear gets habituated and slowly over time it gets to the point where we have to consider them a threat to public safety,” he said.