Living Responsibly with Black Bears

It’s not surprising that just about everyone who lives in the Georgian Bay Biosphere has seen a black bear, perhaps in the wild, at a dump, near a camping site or even near your home. Our area has a very high density of black bears relative to other parts of the province, Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry (MNRF) Resource Liaison Specialist Maidie Gagnon recently told Parry Sound Nature Club members.

Facts about bears

Black bears are intelligent, long‑lived mammals who live in forests and frequent many habitat types. Females typically begin breeding between four and nine years of age. Pregnant females enter their dens alone in November and give birth to their cubs in January. The whole bear family emerges in spring. They stay together through the fall and hibernate in the same den during the cubs’ first winter. Young bears leave their moms the next summer, when they’re two years old.

In the Georgian Bay Biosphere region, where soils are rocky and trees are relatively large, bears make their dens in hollow trees, logs, stumps, or snapped trunks. In the boreal forest, such as the Chapleau Crown Game Preserve, bears often excavate dens in sandy soils, beneath root masses or fallen conifers.

If you see a bear, it’s almost certainly hungry and looking for food. From mid-July through November, bears must prepare for hibernation by chowing down enough to double their weight. They need a whopping 20,000 calories daily, which can be achieved by:

• 78 pounds of blueberries, or

• 672 acorns, or

• nearly 25,000 tent caterpillars, or

• one seven‑pound bird feeder filled with black oil sunflower seeds.

If you see a bear in the wild…

Most bears, particularly females with cubs, are defensive, rather than aggressive. They are stressed by surprises and usually try to flee. Before they leave, they may stand upright to see better; salivate or forcefully exhale; huff, moan, clack their jaws or defecate; lower their head and draw their ears back; charge forward or swat the ground.

Predatory bears, in contrast, are rare. They approach silently and persistently, and may continue heading toward you even if you yell or throw objects at them.

You can prevent a surprise encounter with a bear by talking, singing, or using a whistle when you’re in the wild.

If you do see a bear, your best plan is to prevent conflict by leaving the area at once. Don’t stop to take photos. Don’t rely on bear spray as a first line of defense unless you encounter a predatory bear, since you have to get as close as five meters from the bear’s face for bear spray to work.

It’s all about understanding the animal, respecting its needs, and taking responsibility for how we share the landscape.

Discourage bears from visiting your home

To discourage black bears from visiting your property, it is recommended you:

• secure garbage and recycling

• seal windows and close them while cooking

• clean barbecues thoroughly

• store propane tanks and jerry cans indoors when possible (bears can smell them)

• avoid keeping fuel containers in boats (bears can smell the gas in these, too)

• take hummingbird feeders down at night

• to not put birdseed during the summer

• use electric fencing where appropriate

Expanding provincial knowledge

The MNRF has been tracking and monitoring bear populations since the 1980s. It has replaced live trapping and capture‑recapture methods with a highly effective and far less stressful (to bears) barbed wire hair‑trap program. Staff build a corral of baited barbed wire around trees. When bear enter the corral to eat the bait, they leave their fur on the wire.

Ministry researchers use DNA analysis on collected bear fur to identify individual bears, determine sex and age range, and record where and when samples were collected. They also use this information to estimate bear density across the province and inform wildlife landscape zones and hunting data.

Among their findings: habitat loss, tree diseases (such as beech bark disease, beech leaf disease and oak wilt) and changing weather patterns continue to shape bear behavior. Hot, dry summers, for instance, reduce berry production, which stresses bears’ natural food supplies.

Report any bear sightings

You can add to the ministry’s database calling its Bear Wise reporting line to report bear sightings and encounters, whether or not they result in an emergency, at 1‑866‑514‑2327 or  TTY: 705‑945‑7641