Reply #43: is there any data to suggest that NJ bear populations are actually...

[mike_c]

...starving or at risk of genuine overpopulation? For large, mobile omnivores like bears, this is largely an urban myth. More often the real problem is human encroachment on wildlife habitat so that, as one poster remarked below, bears end up on back porches. This is NOT a bear population management issue, no matter how fervently the state fish and game folks try to dress it up as one-- it's a HUMAN population management issue.

I don't know what population thresholds the NJ fish and game authorities use, or how they set them, but I can say that there are LOTS more bears here in northern California than there are in NJ, and they're only occasionally a nuisance most of the time unless they get a taste for timber cambium. They certainly don't need to be culled. Mostly, that's because the human population density is quite a bit lower here. I suspect the NJ cull has more to do with people protecting their trashcans than with any genuine concern for bear population welfare.