’Tis the bear season: our ‘cute’ woodland neighbors

SALISBURY — Early spring brings out all sorts of natural delights including  black bears emerging from hibernation, well-rested and hungry.  

With ever-increasing ursine numbers in the area, seven regional land trusts joined in sponsoring a Scoville Library Zoom talk on Saturday, Feb. 27, an event that drew an audience of more than 350 to hear bear expert, author and biologist Ben Kilham.  The talk was titled “The Social Bear: What Bears Have Taught Me About Being Human.” Kilham spoke from his home in Lyme, N.H.

“Black bears can make friends with strangers,” Kilham said, introducing the notion of their observable relationships with one another. The strangers referenced here are other bears, not people.

Kilham and wife Debra, along with his sister, Phoebe, have hosted orphaned bear cubs in their home, and nurtured their release back into the wild. A few years ago, Kilham said that they established the Kilham Bear Center, complete with bear pens and two spacious outdoor enclosures.  One enclosure measures eight acres and the other 11.

During the bear rehabilitation process, they have observed habits and social behavior, finding unanticipated parallels to human behavior. 

“My interest is in studying social behavior,” Kilham said. In the past, he said, bears were thought to be solitary, gathering only at food sources. On the contrary, he added, bears exhibit reciprocal altruism. For example, females will alter the boundaries of their territories if an abundance of acorns or beech is found within their area, but a neighboring territory lacks a similar abundance in a given year. They are willing to share with their neighbors.

Authority within a community of bears is “matri-linear,” according to Kilham. A dominant female will show more aggression toward her own relatives than she will show toward strangers. While females have dominance according to their generation, it is the job of all females to chase males away, Kilham noted.

A way to tell if a black bear you encounter is male or female:  the males have longer legs; the females’ legs are quite short in comparison.  Males tend to roam far on their long legs; their home range can be 200 square miles. In New England, that could mean state to state.

Food supplies are key to bears.  Terming the phenomenon “mutualism,” Kilham has observed males traveling together and willingly sharing small amounts of food.

In the spring, bears emerging from hibernation and entering the mating season are drawn to eating new growth such as red oak buds, beech buds, skunk cabbage and jack-in-the-pulpit. They find their way to wet, swampy areas. They will eat beech leaves into mid-June.

The mating season extends from mid-May into July, Kilham said. Cubs will be born during winter hibernation. Bears emerge from dens in April and set about foraging for food.

The diet consists of vegetation, about 85%. They will also ingest insects. Kilham emphasized that they are not predators, although if they come across something that’s easy to catch, they will take it.

People and bears cross paths generally in the summer because people who live in valleys are also likely to be near moist, swampy areas. The bears, seeking to store body fat, prioritize their food possibilities according to quality and quantity. That is why bird feeders and unsecured trash become so attractive.

“Bears have no interest in people,” Kilham insisted. They understand their own communication, which is heavily based on a sophisticated scent system. Incidentally, panda bears do not have that capability. But a black bear can analyze a single leaf to determine toxicity or benefit by holding it gently in its mouth. Early Native Americans knew to watch bears to determine useful properties of certain plants for safety and medicinal uses.

He advises that if you encounter a bear, stay still, keep your eyes on the bear and speak softly, showing that you are not aggressive. The bear will turn and paddle away.

The son of a naturalist, Kilham recalled that his father taught him how to keep good field notes. “It is important to write just what you see, not your interpretation of what you see,” Kilham said.

To learn more about Kilham’s work with bear research, go to www.kilhambearcenter.org.