How does Connecticut development relate to surge in human-bear encounters? Biologists weigh in

With Connecticut residents encountering bears more and more frequently, town officials periodically hear calls to stop new housing or commercial construction on undeveloped land because of fear that bear habitats are vanishing.

As soon as someone posts photos of a bear wandering near someone’s back door, sniffing at their patio grill or trying to get into their trash can, Facebook is peppered with comments that it’s the fault of suburban sprawl encroaching on forests.

But is that theory correct? Some bear biologists say that even though it sounds plausible, it just doesn’t hold up — at least not in Connecticut.

“It’s something we see on social media all the time, and it’s true for some species,” said Jenny Dickson, head of the wildlife division of Connecticut’s department of energy and environmental protection. “People sort of assume that’s the issue with bears. But that’s because they don’t really understand the history of bears in Connecticut or what drives bear behavior.”

In reality, bear habitats in the state are still fairly abundant, she said. Black bears are thriving, according to DEEP estimates, and easy access to humans’ food scraps is a major reason why.

In fact, the idea that bear sightings are soaring because humans in Connecticut are encroaching on bears’ territory is a bit backwards, according to Dickson and others. Instead, what’s happening is that bears in the state are rapidly becoming very accustomed to getting their food from garbage cans and homeowners’ bird feeders.

“Bears aren’t losing habitat here, they’ve got a lot of very good habitat across our state. Where people get confused is that they think of bears living in the deep woods,” Dickson said. “Actually, bears are incredibly adaptable and they’re making use of suburban or even urban habitat.”

Dave Wattles, black bear biologist with the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries & Wildlife, agreed.

“The bears are moving into both newly developed and historically developed areas to take advantage of the plentiful human-associated foods around modern towns, neighborhoods, and residences,” Wattles said. “Then new developments that go into established bear range are certainly going to have bears around them — and if people that move there provide foods for bears, the bears will exploit it.

“Certainly any habitat that is lost is less for bears and other wildlife to use, but what is happening in Connecticut is that your bear population is growing and growing rapidly now,” Wattles said. “That means the population is both increasing in density where you have bears and spreading into new areas that haven’t had bears in the past.”

DEEP statistics have shown the black bear population growing since the 1980s, with especially heavy increases in the past decade. Along with that, human-bear conflicts are up steeply: Reports of such encounters numbered fewer than 500 in 2015, but shot up to more than 3,100 last year.

One of the most alarming statistics is the increase in reports of bears getting into houses, either through doors and windows left open or by forcing their way in. It happened only five times in 2014, compared to 67 times last year. DEEP reported that 2022 was a record year, with bear house entries up about 50% over 2020, the second highest year.

In just the past six weeks, there have been several heavily publicized incidents: A mother bear and cubs broke into a Canton home, another broke into several Salisbury houses, still another broke into an Avon bakery and dragged out several dozen cupcakes, and a bear was euthanized after barging into a Bloomfield house.

The most bear sightings and most bear-human conflicts occur around the Farmington Valley, where most towns are already heavily developed. West Hartford, Avon, Farmington and Simsbury are at the top of the list of communities with the most frequent bear reports: The first three are largely built out, and Simsbury’s forest cover has stayed reasonably steady in the last decade.

Losing a small or mid-sized woodland can be devastating to some species, but biologists say the black bears in Connecticut are comfortable living near a development border.

“You have both things driving the issue: Bears that move into developed areas, and new developments going up in bear territory,” Wattles said. “As long as people continue to provide food there will be conflict and interaction between bears and people in those places.”

Dickson noted that a species like the grasshopper sparrow typically requires a huge grassland for nesting, so tearing up undeveloped fields to build stores, subdivisions or apartment complexes is highly damaging to them. Bears, however, are adapting successfully to development sprawl.

“Bears can essentially use highly developed areas because of the wealth of human-associated foods there; bird feeders, garbage, pet food, intentional feeding (a big issue in Connecticut), and chickens, all of which provide easy high-calorie meals for them,” Wattles said. “Other species that aren’t as adaptable as bears or have more specific habitat requirements or smaller populations are likely to be more negatively affected by new development.”

Dickson noted that black bears have been on the rebound in Connecticut since the late 1980s, and that now they’re healthier, having cubs earlier, and keeping a greater percentage of those cubs alive to full growth.

“We didn’t get regular sightings until the early 1990s. A lot of the communities they’re frequenting now were established long before that,” she said. “So it’s not really a question of us moving into bear habitat, it’s bears moving into our habitat because they’re finding it advantageous to them. The problem is they start building habits where they set up their movements to get easy food. They’ll find high-calorie rewards knocking over garbage or with bird feeders and do hardly any work to get them.”

Dickson said residents must change their attitude toward bears.

“It’s going to require us to change our thinking a little. Always treat them like wild animals. One of the most important things we can all do is not let them get that easy meal, keep them from starting to learn those bad behaviors in the first place,” she said. “If they’re in your yard, try to scare them with noise from your deck or an upstairs window. Scare them so they become uncomfortable, make them feel they’re not safe or at ease.”

In Florida, residents get roughly similar advice.

“Seeing a bear in a neighborhood is not necessarily cause for alarm. However, it is important that residents secure food attractants so that bears do not linger in the area,” said Lisa Thompson, a spokesman for the state wildlife conservation commission’s habitat and species conservation division. “Generally, if a bear is not able to access human-provided foods such as garbage around homes or businesses, it will move on. To reduce conflicts with bears and other wildlife, residents should remove or secure all food attractants from around their houses and yards, including garbage, pet food and bird seed.”

Dickson wants residents to notify DEEP of every bear sighting, since it uses those reports in analyzing where bear populations are on the rise. She said it’s also essential to stop seeing bears as pets.

“Even though we find them entertaining, we’re doing the bears a disservice. We’re not thinking of their well-being,” she said. “They’re not a pet or a cartoon we saw, this isn’t Goldilocks. This is wildlife, very dangerous wildlife.”