Cherrix - Backyard bears: conservation, habitat changes, and the rise of urban wildlife

Asheville, North Carolina is home to approximately 90,000 people.

These days, however, Asheville also belongs to its human residents, many of whom are delighted by the bears but also wary of them. Its a balancing act for people like Rebecca Dougherty, who regularly encounters Ashevilles urban bear population around her family home. She doesnt live in fear of the animals, but she does take the necessary precautions. Ive come across many bears, she says, but I always do the wise and safe thing by slowly backing away. Rebecca says she respects the animals, but she also worries because there is a lot of misinformation about their behavior that can lead to trouble. People mistakenly believe they will always be able to hear a bear before they see it. But I have found myself too close to a bear because I didnt realize it was nearby until I actually saw it. If Im near the door of the house and I spot a bear, I step inside. In the past, she has also quickly stolen into her car until a bear moved along.

As people around Asheville have learned, when they live in close proximity with bears, its up to them to be proactive about deterring bear activity. Sometimes that requires a little creative problem solving. Rebeccas family began by rethinking garbage disposal. One of their cleverest ideas was freezing their food waste. Rather than tossing it into an outdoor compost pile that might attract bears, they freeze it. On trash day, the frozen block of discarded food is packaged with the other trash and taken out to the curb shortly before its scheduled for collection. We make an effort to shoo them away, Rebecca says. We dont want them to get too comfy here.

A mother bear and her cub inspect a vehicle in Asheville, North Carolina.

The number of black bears in and around Asheville is growing. There are between 15,000 and 20,000 black bears statewide, approximately 7,000 of which live throughout Western North Carolina. As additional land is developed to create new neighborhoods, people are moving closer to where the bears live, increasing the chance of human interaction with these animals, who are highly capable of adapting to life near people. And though hunting is the primary method for managing the bear population, it is not allowed in Asheville. This, combined with successful conservation efforts and the proximity of black bear habitat, has resulted in urbanized black bears living within city limits. Of the hundred counties in North Carolina, approximately 41 percent of all phone calls about bears come from Buncombe County, in which Asheville is located. With the increasing visibility of bears in the area, residentsand wildlife biologistshave questions about the animals. Are these bears larger? Do they have more cubs? Where do they live, and how is the local bear population changing?

BEAR BASICS: WHATS FOR DINNER?

• Bears are omnivores, a type of animal that eats other animals as well as plants.

• Their diet varies from acorns, nuts, berries, grasses, plants, grubs, larvae, fish, and fruit to animals such as young deer.

• During the fall, acorns are a large part of the bears diet as they enter hyperphagia, a period of time during which they fatten up for the winter denning season. This evolutionary strategy helps them survive the winter, when food is limited or nonexistent.

Jennifer Strules, Nick Gould, and Colleen Olfenbuttel arrive at their outdoor office.

For now, residents of Asheville seem tolerant of their neighborhood black bears. Will they be able to coexist with these animals long-term? Do bears and people transmit harmful diseases to one another? What is the potential impact of the rapidly expanding bear population in an urban setting? How do city bears differ from country or rural bears? Four dedicated wildlife biologists are on a search for answers to these questions: PhD candidate Nicholas Gould and Jennifer Strules, wildlife biologists with North Carolina State University; Dr. Christopher DePerno, a professor at North Carolina State University; and Colleen Olfenbuttel, the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commissions black bear and furbearer biologist. Its Colleens jobin addition to functioning as the bear studys co-principal investigatorto keep tabs on the population of black bears and of sixteen furbearing animal species in the state. Together, the team is conducting the North Carolina Urban/Suburban Black Bear Study. The five-year field investigation of Ashevilles urban/suburban bears will observe how this growing population lives and how it uses Asheville as a resource. The team will interact with bears in their dens and will trap them in large, barrel-shaped culvert traps during the spring and summer months.