Can You Bear It?
Aug. 12th, 2008 10:38 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ellyssianDeb called me down to watch something on television last night. It was on PCN, a station that generally runs things like tours of local companies, such as Just Born (Mike & Ikes, Peeps, etc.) and C.F. Martin & Co.. This was a program about bears in neighborhoods, what the signs were, and what to do.
The program was presented by the Dauphin county officer of the PA Game Commission. Here's some random factoids:
A few years ago - 2004 & 2005, I believe - some counties had extended bear hunting seasons. They're bringing back extended seasons this year, as they don't think they stabilized the population, so there should be less of a bear issue next year.
The target number is to keep it to around 15,000 bears across the state.
In Dauphin county, the number of bear calls to 2006 were relativity steady - in the tens to teens, I think. In 2007, there was a few more, but in the high teens. In 2008, there have already been 45 calls.
Country-wide, there have only been three fatalities from black bears: one in the Rockies, one in the Smokies, and one in New York. All three happened at parks where there was human-fed bears.
In Pennsylvania, there was only a very small number of bear "attacks". One was a hunter who shot the bear four times, then walked up to it and it bit him on the leg before it died. Another was the one I reported a few years ago of the three kids from Philly who got "mauled" by the bear just up the road from here at the Hickory Run state park - turns out the evidence was later shown that the mauling was due to running through the woods at night, drunk and half-dressed, and no bear was believed to be involved. Two involved scouts bringing food into their tent, which brought a bear in after the food - one was a boy scout at Hickory Run with chocolate bars, the other was a girl scout a few miles further north (I don't recall what food she used as a lure). The last was a woman who went out after dark to bring her bird feeders in, and her dog attacked (and was killed) by the bear.
He also mentioned how bears he relocated up to 90 miles away came back. Others that he relocated 15-20 miles away never returned.
Apparently bears born here tend to migrate down along the ridge and end up in his neighborhood, but from what he implied, some of that migration was due to them being "pushed" down the line.
All in all, I feel more comfortable about the situation, and Deb says she does as well. The Game Commission has a bit of their site filled with links on black bears, safety precautions, and so forth here.
The program was presented by the Dauphin county officer of the PA Game Commission. Here's some random factoids:
A few years ago - 2004 & 2005, I believe - some counties had extended bear hunting seasons. They're bringing back extended seasons this year, as they don't think they stabilized the population, so there should be less of a bear issue next year.
The target number is to keep it to around 15,000 bears across the state.
In Dauphin county, the number of bear calls to 2006 were relativity steady - in the tens to teens, I think. In 2007, there was a few more, but in the high teens. In 2008, there have already been 45 calls.
Country-wide, there have only been three fatalities from black bears: one in the Rockies, one in the Smokies, and one in New York. All three happened at parks where there was human-fed bears.
In Pennsylvania, there was only a very small number of bear "attacks". One was a hunter who shot the bear four times, then walked up to it and it bit him on the leg before it died. Another was the one I reported a few years ago of the three kids from Philly who got "mauled" by the bear just up the road from here at the Hickory Run state park - turns out the evidence was later shown that the mauling was due to running through the woods at night, drunk and half-dressed, and no bear was believed to be involved. Two involved scouts bringing food into their tent, which brought a bear in after the food - one was a boy scout at Hickory Run with chocolate bars, the other was a girl scout a few miles further north (I don't recall what food she used as a lure). The last was a woman who went out after dark to bring her bird feeders in, and her dog attacked (and was killed) by the bear.
He also mentioned how bears he relocated up to 90 miles away came back. Others that he relocated 15-20 miles away never returned.
Apparently bears born here tend to migrate down along the ridge and end up in his neighborhood, but from what he implied, some of that migration was due to them being "pushed" down the line.
All in all, I feel more comfortable about the situation, and Deb says she does as well. The Game Commission has a bit of their site filled with links on black bears, safety precautions, and so forth here.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2008-08-12 04:29 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-08-12 10:22 pm (UTC)appropriate to your neighbors who put out their trash the evening before. Which will do nothing unless you then hand them out or leave them on a porch -- not in a mailbox which is illegal.
BTW: hummingbird feeder gone yet?
(no subject)
Date: 2008-08-12 11:49 pm (UTC)