SEARSBURG, Vt. (AP) - Roused from his slumber, the black bear strolled out of his den sooner than expected earlier this month and decided to sun himself on a bed of softwood branches.
Enter a group of wildlife researchers and college students conducting field work in the Green Mountain National Forest as part of an ongoing study into the potential effects of wind turbines on black bears.
A video taken that day shows the bear bolt from his den before he is hit with a tranquilizer dart. He tumbles a few times before he regains footing and lumbers down the hill. Researchers found him a while later. They took some measurements and refitted his tracking collar before returning him to his den and tucking him back in.
That video, which made the rounds online this week, may serve as a reminder that Vermont’s black bear population is thriving. For some, they may not need to look farther than their back yard for proof: A handful of Bennington County residents have recently contacted the Banner with bear sightings.
For Caitlin Drasher, who studies wildlife biology at the University of Vermont, it was just another day in the woods.
The Manchester resident was a freshman when she first volunteered to help with the study, which aims to determine if and how wind turbines impact bear movement and behavior. Today, Drasher is reviewing data from that study for her senior thesis.
She said she is interested in how human development, especially roads, impact bears. In an interview in March, she spoke of how great the experience has been.
“They’re getting some amazing data on how the bears are moving,” Drasher said.
Once in a decline across the country, the American black bear population has grown over the past two-to-three decades. In Vermont, wildlife experts estimate the black bear population to be about 6,000, with the highest numbers in northeastern part of the state and the Green Mountains from Massachusetts to Canada.
And with a booming population and a rise in sightings in Massachusetts and Vermont, wildlife officials are encouraging people to take special steps in order to live with them peacefully.
Officials with the Vermont Department of Fish and Wildlife are encouraging Vermonters to bring in bird feeders by the end of the month to avoid attracting bears to populated areas, which can be a danger to people as well as the animal.
Bears are very fond of suet and bird seed, especially black oil sunflower seed, according to Forrest Hammond, a biologist who heads the department’s black bear program. Bringing feeders in at night doesn’t work, because bears will still feed on seed that is spilled on the ground.
Bears will emerge from their dens in the spring to seek food after hibernating.
“Last spring came particularly early and we had a lot of bears out in March,” Hammond said. “This year, the past storm, may have helped a bit. They were starting to come out, but because of the snow, may have had second thoughts.”
Bird feeders filled with seed or suet cakes are a food source, when there would otherwise not be many foods high in nutrition, Hammond said. Acorns and beech nuts have mostly been snatched up by other wildlife. Snow on the forest floor likely covers other food sources. And it will be some weeks until early-budding trees, like aspen, poplar and birch spring to life.
“Smell is a bear’s sharpest sense - they may be able to smell a feeder a mile away,” Hammond said.
While someone may have only the best intentions when they leave food out for a bear. But it’s unnecessary - black bears “are well adapted to finding food,” Drasher said.
In Vermont, a law passed several years ago makes it’s illegal to feed black bears.
Wildlife experts cite the phrase: “A fed bear is a dead bear.” If a bear is drawn to a populated area, then it could become a bad habit. And if a bear repeatedly gets into trouble, it could be euthanized.
The black bear wind study started in 2011 and aims to collect data on bears before, during and after construction of Deerfield Wind, the first industrial wind project on national forest land. Ground was broken on the 15- turbine project last fall.
Hammond, Drasher, wildlife researchers and 10 UVM students were in the forest on March 5. They were there to refit a radio collar on a bear and take some measurements. They found he was already awake, and had built what Hammond calls a “daybed” of spruce tips.
The process is normally not as exciting, Hammond said. So it’s atypical from the standpoint. But it’s not uncommon for a bear to be out-and-about this early. Periods of rain and warmth during recent winters interrupt their sleep.
Hammond said Drasher has been a great help to the study.
“She’s done an amazing job with the work she’s done,” Hammond said. “She’s shown an incredible amount of initiative.”
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Information from: Bennington Banner, https://www.benningtonbanner.com
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