Black bears regain foothold in Wisconsin after 100-year absence

[Ed Barrow]

In the deep summer green of a hardwood stand in Devil's Lake State Park, Bill Ishmael puts on his reading glasses and stares closely at the bark of a slender tree. Up and down the trunk run parallel gouges and scars. In several places the bark is punctured by deep holes.

"We'll put this one down as a hit," said Ishmael, a wildlife biologist with the state Department of Natural Resources.

...

This spring has marked the beginning of a new era in how the DNR thinks of black bears in southern Wisconsin. With multiple bear sightings coming to the agency every day, including numerous reports of sows with cubs, DNR wildlife experts now believe southern Wisconsin is home to its own population of black bears for the first time since the late 1800s.

And this week saw the beginning of efforts to scientifically gather data on the fledgling population as Ishmael and Becky Roth, also a DNR wildlife biologist, conducted the first bear bait station surveys undertaken in southern Wisconsin.

"This year was just crazy compared to the last two years," said Roth of bear sightings.


http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/environment/article_a5e5270a-80aa-11df-a76c-001cc4c03286.html

[edbermac]

1. Republicans cry reverse discrimination against white bears.

Thanks to the illegal Kenyan alien President's attempts to destroy America.

[Jackpine Radical]

2. Black bear may have been a little scarce in the southern part of the state--

but, at age 65 I can never recall a shortage of them in the northern part of the state.

[doc03]

3. I haven't seen a black bear yet in Ohio myself but over the last

several years they have been coming back. One was sighted a couple hundred yards from my place yesterday. For several years we have had sightings of a few males in the fall out looking for a mate.
This summer some cubs have been sighted so we definitely have some permanent residents here now.
Back in the 50's deer were as rare as bear are today now they are pests. That's one benefit living in the rust belt people are moving out and the wildlife are moving in. Myself I much prefer the wildlife over the humans.

[elocs]

4. A year ago a male black bear wandered into the park with the zoo here in La Crosse.

It was scared to death and climbed a tree, so the police had to shoot it for the safety of all the people. Of course the zoo had a couple of black bears of their own that were in heat. The police claimed they had no tranquilizer gun and the closest one was 90 miles away, but they forgot that they gave one to the local humane society a couple of years earlier and it was only a few miles away.

Police chief said that if it happened again this year that the police would do exactly the same thing. So much for a year of planning for that possibility again.

[happyslug]

5. Black bear territory

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:American_Black_bear_map.png
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Black_Bear

[happyslug]

6. Some comments on Black Bears

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/archive/4/4c/20071003184951!Map_black_bear_1.png&imgrefurl=http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Map_black_bear_1.png&h=786&w=786&sz=196&tbnid=4nOrsDpP8bmDNM:&tbnh=143&tbnw=143&prev=/images%3Fq%3DBlack%2BBear%2Bmap&hl=en&usg=__CY-Ep7P0CidbAkLXe2brNWRyGyM=&sa=X&ei=0comTNDuFMP6lweuncTPAw&ved=0CB4Q9QEwAg

Black bear is a creature of Mature forests (I.e. older trees, Black Trees can climb trees, by just using it paws, unlike grizzly bears, black bears can use its claws to dig into the tree trunk thus can climb any tall tree). Deer is more a second growth creature, thus dislikes grasslands (for this reason Mule deer Replace White Tail as you head west, Mule Deer is better adapted to grasslands then white tails) and mature forests.

Thus Black bears tend to be creatures of mature forests (Through can survive with younger trees). Deer is a product of secondary growth forests. By the time forest mature, the trigs deer eat are to high for deer and deer move elsewhere. Black Bears can thrive in such mature forests, while deer leave. Thus I am not surprise Black Bear territory is expanding, the de-forestation of the late 1800s and early 1900s have now grown back to almost mature forest levels (NOT true virgin forests, that will take a few more hundred years, but with to many tall trees to be secondary growth and thus can be viewed as young mature forests.

Black Bear hisotrical Range:

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=&imgrefurl=http://www.calacademy.org/science_now/archive/headline_science/black_bear.php&h=400&w=384&sz=12&tbnid=u-OAB8fcOyLGGM:&tbnh=124&tbnw=119&prev=/images%3Fq%3DBlack%2BBear%2Bmap&hl=en&usg=__R_BIrW0yEYwMjv80fGrb5bUE2Zk=&sa=X&ei=0comTNDuFMP6lweuncTPAw&ved=0CBwQ9QEwAQ

Range in Wisconsin:

http://dnr.wi.gov/org/caer/ce/eek/critter/mammal/beardist.htm

[ramapo]

7. Lots of black bears in NJ

The bears have been getting some bad press here. There have been some bear/human interaction over the past week. There is a yearly controversy over holding/not holding a bear hunt. Hike the northern forests and you are likely to see a bear or two. They often wander through suburbia and sometimes wind up in the oddest places.

The population has recovered from zero some decades ago. And the deer are almost as prevalent as squirrels.