There’s a bear there

There’s a bear there

While waiting for the bus early one morning, my daughter saw a bear. Driving home at midday a few days later, my wife saw another. Neither family member thought this occurrence remarkable, even though these were their first-ever bear sightings. We live in bear country; they were bound to see one eventually.

The first bear was seen ambling across the street near Lindell’s Hardware in North Canaan’s central business district. The other crossed Route 7, just south of Geer Village. It may well have been the same animal, moving between the Blackberry River, Robbin’s Swamp and Canaan Mountain. It could just as easily have been two bears. 

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Connecticut’s Department of Energy and Environmental Protection estimates there are about 650 black bears (Ursus americanus) in the state, with more than 6,000 sightings reported in the last 12-month period. The population is increasing at a robust 10 percent per year. 

Their habitats and ours overlap, and a combination of garbage cans, gas grills and bird feeders makes even the smallest of backyards attractive to them. Mine was visited repeatedly by bears last spring and I live on less than a quarter acre on a residential street.

Connecticut does allow bear hunting, as do our neighboring states, and some day it may come to that. Black bear attacks are extremely rare and human fatalities even rarer, but they are large animals and as their numbers increase we will come into increasing contact.

They are one of nature’s success stories, reoccupying their historic range after having been driven out by the advance of human settlement. I, for one, am glad that they are part of the ecology of this region that has lost nearly all its other large predators; but whether they can remain so depends on our ability to find ways to coexist.

As autumn advances, bears will be on the move, fattening up before hibernation. Chances are you may see one, so a few precautions are in order. 

Bears are wild animals and should not be approached. 

Cleaning your outdoor grills and taking in your bird feeders except in winter will make your home less interesting to a hungry bear. 

Most of the time, a bear spotted crossing the road is passing through, but the bear that returns to your garbage can has learned to find food there. Changing your behavior is easier than changing the bear’s.

Tim Abbott is program director of Housatonic Valley Association’s Litchfield Hills Greenprint. His blog is at www.greensleeves.typepad.com.