Black Bear Statistics

There's an interesting AP article regarding the population growth of black bears in the lower 48 states that was picked-up by several newspapers around the country yesterday. The following are a few statistics about bears that I thought were quite interesting:

* The U.S. bear population more than doubled between 1989 and 2006, rising from 165,000 to over 350,000, according to The International Association of Bear Research and Management.

* The Great Smoky Mountain National Park website states that there were approximately 1500 bears living in the park in 2006. However, the All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory being conducted by Discover Life in America estimates that there are now 1800 bears in the park. I happen to have a copy of the October, 1968 issue of National Geographic Magazine which includes an article that reports that there were only 300 bears living in the park back then.

* Bear-human encounters have also increased to more than 15,000 in the past year in states east of the Mississippi River according to a survey of state wildlife agencies.

* The State of Tennessee reported the largest increase in bear-human encounters, up from 300 to 1000 over the past 10 years. That was followed by New York, which went from 587 to 1127, and New Jersey, which jumped from 691 encounters to 1117.

* Stephanie Boyles, a wildlife scientist for the Humane Society of the United States, said 14 people have been killed in attacks by black bears in North America since 2000, including two in Tennessee - one in Great Smoky Mountains National Park and the other in Cherokee National Forest. Boyles said another 10 people were killed by grizzlies during that same period, mostly in Alaska and Canada.

* According to Appalachian Bear Rescue, over the last 100 years, 57 people have been killed by black bears in all of North America. That’s the same number of people who die as a result of bee stings in the United States every year.

Frank van Manen, a U.S. Geological Survey research ecologist and president of the International Association for Bear Research and Management, said it's not that the bears are becoming more aggressive. Instead, he said, bear populations are skyrocketing under state bans or limits on bear hunting.

"What we have seen throughout the eastern United States is quite a phenomenal range expansion of the black bear," van Manen said."With the range expansion, the likelihood of the encounters is increasing."

Finally, one recent anecdotal story I thought was pretty interesting. A black bear was spotted just east of Cincinnati, Ohio this past week. What's interesting is that they think it swam across the Ohio River or walked across a bridge from Kentucky.


Jeff
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