Meet the Black Bear
Your shy, gentle, innocent neighbor
Black Bears are just like us! They are shy with strangers, gentle with friends, and caring with family
These are the perfect bears to coexist with in Connecticut
Black Bears are perfectly adapted to forest environments: in fact, they need them. They have short claws specifically adapted for foraging for nuts and for climbing trees to safety. Their climbing is their essential survival skill, especially for cubs, who rely on “safe trees” to climb when mom isn’t around. They are clever foragers who eat almost entirely nuts, fruits, and insects, and have good color vision for the same reason that humans do: to spot ripe fruit! Because of their very gentle, tolerant nature, they’re the perfect neighbors to share our state with.
​
Do you know the difference between a Black Bear and a Grizzly?
And they love to eat! From late March to November, their main goal is to bulk up to prepare for hibernation
In the spring, they eat 5,000 calories per day, but in the fall: 20,000 per day! Talk about gains, yeesh!
Plant foods make up around 90% of their diet, and when they enter “hyperphagia”, they eat huge amounts to fatten up for the winter. This means spending all their waking hours snuffling on the forest floor for acorns, beech nuts, berries, and wild grapes. If they come across any rich food source, they are happy to dig in. Their love for tasty foods can sometimes get bears into trouble. If they get into garbage, bird feeders, or pet food, they can be branded as “problem bears”
​
Who is to blame for “problem bears”?
Is it “mama bear”, or us?
Some say "problem bear", but bears are not to blame. We can eliminate all problems by being "bear boring"
It's our responsibility to be #bearsmart! Which means removing attractants and making our homes #bearboring
It’s our responsibility to be #bearsmart! Which means removing attractants and making our homes #bearboring
If your dog likes to break into garbage, you need to secure the garbage. The same is true for Black Bears. The best way to prevent bear problems is to remove and secure any temptation or attractants that could lure them near homes.
Do I need to get rid of my bird-feeders? Yes! Unless...
Bears are being threatened
By the agency that's meant to protect them
DEEP's wildlife division has been studying black bear population in our state since 2001
The research it has been conducting for 20 years focuses on how many bears there are, rather than how best to manage them: DEEP’s wildlife division has reported a consistent 11% population growth rate throughout their research. Despite teaching that a “Fed bear is a dead bear” and asking you to report “problem bears” (in order to ultimately haze or kill bears), they have failed to reduce the rapidly increasing conflicts at all. Still, they continue their pointless counting, telling us the numbers are growing too much.
​
How-come bear-human conflicts are doubling annually when the bear population is barely increasing each year?
DEEP has spent 20 years studying the slow-growing bear population, meanwhile failing at tackling the faster-growing "bear-human conflict"
DEEP has done a terrible job
It might blame its failure on residents feeding bears near their homes - which certainly contributes to the problem - but its research hasn’t even tried to tackle how best to manage bears in our state given our unique challenges. Most people in CT don’t want to see a bear killed, yet DEEP has killed more and more “problem bears” each year, and insists we need to kill more. DEEP’s research is skewed towards providing data to support an eventual hunt in Connecticut, rather than informing the best way to minimize conflict… for which there is a solution.
Have any states had success in reducing bear-human conflicts by killing bears?
​
Image: DEEP biologist handles cubs for photo-op. Bears have died as a direct result of DEEP's den-disturbances in the name of "research."
Despite failing to reduce bear-human conflicts by killing bears, DEEP continues to insist that a bear "harvest" is the necessary next step.
Prevention is the Solution!
Every year, one or more bear-hunt bills are proposed to the Connecticut General Assembly, openly promoted by DEEP, which attributes the growing “conflict” to the growing bear population and to push a hunt. DEEP has already shown, however, that killing doesn’t work. Despite killing over 20 bears in the past 3 years due to “nuisance” events, and carrying out aversive conditioning on many more, the number of bear complaints continue to rise. It’s clearly not a bear problem. It’s something else.
What is aversive conditioning, how well does it work, and when is it useful?
Image: DEEP’s Biologists and Game warden block our cameras to hide their mistreatment of a trapped bear. They chose to aversive condition the bear deep in a forest rather than in a place where the bear could be caught in the act (which the biologists knew about but have publicly denied)
DEEP's ties to hunting interests explain why it promotes hunting over using proven solutions and doings its job
The story of Bear Orange-288
Orange-288 is a female who has been active and living in her forest habitat near Riverton for many years. In October 2020, DEEP management set up a culvert trap to capture bears like O-288 and others hundreds of yards into the forests of two nature preserves. They set up the culvert trap 10 feet from the private preserve on the Hartland Land Trusts land to capture, "study", and haze bears they claimed were problem bears.
​
While the trap was active, DEEP captured multiple bears whom they neglected for more than 12 hours on multiple occasions, hazed with no success, and demonstrated no care for. In that time, activists documented the gross and perplexing mismanagement by DEEP's agents and lead biologists to manage our beloved wildlife.
DEEP goal is a bear hunt
A hunt is bad for you, bears, and our economy
80% of DEEP's funding comes from hunting & fishing
The Pittman-Robertson Act is a federal law that directs gun taxes to fund wildlife agencies (including DEEP) to preserve open space, build up wildlife populations, and recruit hunters. Larger wildlife populations spells bigger hunts, which recruits more hunters, and ultimately increases weapons-spending in the state. State wildlife agencies are rewarded for efforts to promote hunting with more funding from the gun tax. Though the P-R Act has provided important funding for open space, it misaligns the priorities of agencies charged with conserving our environment, and created an undeniable conflict-of-interest at every level of the agency. This funding scheme incentivizes DEEP to create bear-human conflict in order to boost its budget.
DEEP is funded by hunters, for hunters, which creates a terrible conflict of interest for the agency.
DEEP's hunt-crazed staff prioritize repetitive data-collection over the well-being of bears and the state
DEEP's 20 years of research keep them busy, but useless
It’s no wonder the bear-human conflict hasn’t been solved: letting it persist is the best budget-boosting strategy DEEP could have, and is one that DEEP staff happily support. DEEP’s wildlife division is comprised mostly of hunters (+70%) who already are heavily biased in favor of hunting (given that the hunting lobby pays their salaries). If DEEP continues to publish repetitive data on the growing bear population, crow about the “alarming rate” of increase in bear conflict, feebly says “don’t feed bears” (while doing it themselves), then DEEP’s inaction eventually might create enough problems to legalize an unnecessary, cruel bear hunt.
How do DEEP’s wildlife values compare to those of our residents?
DEEP tries to convince us otherwise, but the science proves that hunting won't benefit anyone (but DEEP).
TLDR: Hunting doesn't work; the data are clear.
DEEP says hunting is necessary to get our bears under control, but it won’t work, it’s unnecessarily cruel, and costs us more than the alternatives. A comprehensive review found that states that relied on hunting as their management strategy nevertheless saw bear complaints continue to rise. Meanwhile, hunters killed the “well-behaved” bears that were nowhere near homes (not causing problems), so the conflicts continued and grew. It wasn’t until certain states implemented humane management programs that addressed the right factors behind conflicts that there was a dramatic drop in bear-related complaints (from hundreds of complaints to near zero!).
​
What is the real reason behind bear-human conflicts?
DEEP is framing bears
To justify a "harvest" (hunt)
DEEP is well-known by activist groups to use inflammatory language to criminalize Black Bears
Black Bears are Not Aggressive!
The media and DEEP love to exaggerate supposed aggression or “boldness” of bears because 1) it makes for an exciting story and 2) justifies violent intervention. Unlike Grizzly and Polar Bears, Black Bears evolved as terrified prey and will choose to flee (not fight) every time they can. The truth (that DEEP knows) is that Black Bears are not aggressive, and are just doing what they evolved to do, namely eat and chill. Despite knowing that Black Bears are gentle and shy, DEEP’s own biologists shamelessly perpetuate the idea that bears might soon become aggressive and dangerous. This lie is so persistent that activist groups have been forced to send volunteers to DEEP talks just to force them to admit that Black Bears in fact are gentle cowards.
​
Truth or Myth: Bears that wander into inhabited areas are dangerous
In 2018, they refused to test and implement proven techniques to tackle hunger-caused bear-problems
100% of "problem bears" are created by people
Do your part to keep them out of trouble:
Black Bears are entirely food motivated. Where there's free food, you can bet that there will be a bear taking advantage of the opportunity, naturally. After all - they can smell food from miles away!
In 2020, they undermined local tourism projects by hazing bears to make them more difficult to see.
Prevention is the Solution!
Hunting and hazing doesn't reliably reduce unwanted bear behavior
Management plans that address hunger and attractants reduce bear-human conflicts to nearly zero! Meanwhile studies show that more hunting is accompanied by more problems.
Love thy bear-neighbor
Be #bearsmart and spread the good news!
The tricks to keeping bears out of trouble are simple, effective, and cheap! It's just a matter of prevention.
Black Bears are Not Aggressive!
They behave like prey animals because they are!
They've spent most of their 4 million years as prey to larger animals, and don't want to cause trouble. Living with bears is easy and possible!
Bear-viewing tourism generates 10x more revenue for the state, and 42x more jobs, than hunting ever will!
100% of "problem bears" are created by people
Do your part to keep them out of trouble:
Black Bears are entirely food motivated. Where there's free food, you can bet that there will be a bear taking advantage of the opportunity, naturally. After all - they can smell food from miles away!
No bears are harmed as a result of bear-viewing tourism! And no state has more potential than ours.
Prevention is the Solution!
Hunting and hazing doesn't reliably reduce unwanted bear behavior
Management plans that address hunger and attractants reduce bear-human conflicts to nearly zero! Meanwhile studies show that more hunting is accompanied by more problems.