Conservation Corner: And the bears go marching by
As a Fairfield County resident, the last weeks of spring and the first few of summer signal not only the transition of seasons but also seem to be the peak time of year when we hear reports of certain hairy, adolescent males wandering far from their birthplace in search of a new place to settle down. No, I’m not talking about graduating high school seniors setting out on their path to adulthood, but instead I’m referring to the infrequent sightings of Ohio’s largest native mammal – the black bear.
Black bears are the most common and widespread bear species in North America, and prior to European settlement were found throughout what is now the state of Ohio. As this territory was conquered and cleared for agriculture and urban settlements, black bears were assumed extirpated from our boundaries by the mid-1800s through hunting, trapping, and the destruction of their preferred forested habitat. However, neighboring states with larger wooded tracts such as Pennsylvania and West Virginia maintained more stable populations and, since bears can cover several hundred miles in the course of their movement patterns, scattered reports of bear sightings popped up over the subsequent century until 1973 when a report of a sow with cubs in southeastern Ohio was likely the first credible documentation of in-state reproduction.
Since then, the return of forested cover in the hilly, eastern and Appalachian regions of Ohio has resulted in a gradual, natural immigration of bears from those adjacent states’ populations with the northeast cluster of Ashtabula, Trumbull, and Geauga counties accounting for the most confirmed sightings in the last thirty years. Interestingly, the second hotspot of bear activity has been just a stone’s throw from our backyards with the Hocking Hills tri-county region of Athens, Hocking, and Vinton all reporting double-digit sightings during the same time period.
So, what does that mean for Fairfield County residents who might wonder, out of fear or fascination, about their odds of encountering a black bear during a walk in the countryside? Well, your chances still remain slim as we have had less than a dozen documented individuals enter our borders since 1993, but the month of June is the peak time due to a feature in bear biology that results in female bears forcing their male offspring out of their territory as mating season arrives. These young males, aged roughly eighteen months old, begin covering great distances searching for the combination of proper habitat and lack of another bear’s established territory. Inevitably this brings one or two of these transients through our area for a brief period of time but hasn’t yet led to one taking up permanent residence, due mainly to Fairfield County’s lack of sufficient woodlands.
Most recently, one was photographed at Clear Creek Metro Park about two weeks ago and a few days later there were reports of a bear, potentially the same one, meandering through the southern parts of Lancaster. Previous years have also brought multiple sightings during this same time period usually over the course of about a five to ten-day window. Fortunately, the most serious human-bear conflicts have been minor complaints of bears emptying a few bird feeders and one landowner lamenting the loss of his prized raspberry patch to a bear who beat him to the ripe fruit.
As always, if you happen to observe a bear, whether on your property, a park, or while driving down the road, please report it to the Division of Wildlife’s wildlife sighting report page or give me a call at my office. This also applies to any sign such as tracks, scat, or bears struck and killed by automobiles.
Tommy Springer is the wildlife and education specialist for the Fairfield Soil and Water Conservation District. He can be reached at 740-653-8154 or at Tommy.Springer@fairfieldswcd.org
This article originally appeared on Lancaster Eagle-Gazette: Conservation Corner: And the bears go marching by
