The bear necessities: What increased black bear sightings mean for Howard residents

Jun. 20—June 5 was shaping up to be a typical Monday morning as Christine Gillette and her daughter, Lily, waited for the school bus in Columbia's Hopewell community. That was until Lily pointed to a furry black blob about 100 yards up the sidewalk.

"I was looking right at it and I still didn't really process that it was a bear because that's not something you expect to see coming at you at eight o'clock in the morning, just moseying along," Gillette said. "I was immediately covered in goose bumps in a unique way."

As other families arrived, the bear disappeared into the adjacent woods. The bear sighting was one of several in Columbia and Marriottsville reported to Howard County police in the last month, according to department spokesperson Seth Hoffman.

A few hours after Gillette's encounter, students at Hammond High School, where the mascot is the Golden Bear, went into a modified lockdown after a black bear was spotted on Blue Sea Drive. Other reports quickly surfaced of a bear in the area, with one Hopewell resident capturing footage of the creature on their Neighbors App by Ring.

While police say it's unclear whether it was multiple bears or the same individual that was spotted, the Howard incidents were part of an upsurge in bear sightings throughout the region this month, including in Baltimore and Montgomery counties and Washington, D.C.

"June and July ... is a very busy time of the year for bears," said Jonathan Trudeau, the black bear and co-deer project leader with Maryland's Department of Natural Resources. "This year, we've definitely had more than we have in the past. That's kind of a combination of a few things."

Trudeau says June is typically when yearlings, the "teenagers of the bear world," leave the place they were born to establish their own ranges. Bears are solitary animals and may disperse only a few miles or up to dozens, potentially wandering into more urbanized areas.

"We're also going into the breeding season," Trudeau said. "You also have adults that are now in the search for mates, especially the males. They'll travel a long distance in search of a mate because males have very large home ranges, which is the area that they live out their lives in, and they encompass many, many females."

The increase in sightings this year is also indicative of a healthy bear population, according to Trudeau.

Black bears, the only bear species found in the Eastern United States, once occupied all of Maryland, but by the 1950s had been reduced to a few individuals in the state's far west. Thanks to habitat recovery and conservation efforts, Maryland is now home to more than 2,000 bears, including breeding populations in Garrett, Allegany, Washington and Frederick counties.

To help manage the numbers, the Maryland Wildlife and Heritage Service conducts population surveys and since 2004 has regulated a lottery-based hunting season that usually harvests 120-130 bears annually.

"Our goal is not to have a huge impact on the population," said Trudeau, who noted the hunting period only lasts six days and bans the use of dogs and bait. "Our goal is to maintain a stable population and reduce the number of bears that are on the road annually."

As bears continue to move eastward, encounters like those experienced by Hopewell residents may become more commonplace. Black bears generated $18,700 in agricultural damage between 2011 and 2021 and about 60 bears are killed each year in vehicle strikes in the state, according to DNR.

But bear attacks on humans in Maryland are incredibly rare, says Trudeau, with only two such incidents occurring over the last several decades. Both involved Frederick County residents who had dogs with them.

If you do happen to stumble across a bear, Trudeau says to first make sure you're not in between a mother and her cubs. If the animal does spot you, he recommends raising your arms to appear larger and speaking to it in a calm voice.

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However, if you're not sure if there's a bear nearby, you should make noise to let it know you are there and not to come near. "If you want to try and get it out of your area, you make a loud, noisy situation, but you don't want to sneak up on it," he said. "You want to maintain some distance and make sure that you provide that bear with an exit."

The department also partners with the program BearWise to provide safety tips, such as always keeping dogs leashed while in bear country, never feeding bears and keeping bird feed and trash locked away if a bear is reported in the area.

Black bears are omnivores and a majority of their diet consists of vegetation such as fruits, berries and nuts. The presence of bears in Columbia is a sign the county's forests are also healthy and capable of providing the wide variety of food sources required by the animals.

"We just want to see a healthy black bear population and folks adjust to bears being in their area," Trudeau said. "There's a lot that we can do to coexist and appreciate and enjoy having that valuable resource in the area."

As for Gillette, she says she may make a bit more noise as she walks down Columbia's trails this time of the year.

"I just worry about potential conflicts for residents but if anything with the bears I don't want them to be targeted unfairly," she said. "They're just doing their bear things."

To learn more black bears in Maryland, visit: https://dnr.maryland.gov/wildlife/Pages/hunt_trap/BlackBear.aspx