It’s been about 150 years since black bears freely roamed the fields and forests of the Buckeye State. After being wiped out in the mid-1800s, Ohio was generally devoid of black bears (aside from the odd wanderer) up until about ten years ago when sightings began to be more frequent and have since compounded into what state biologists now believe to be a burgeoning resident population.
Just last year, Ohio recorded 537 reported black bear sightings across 69 counties, marking the highest total on record and a noticeably impressive jump from the 370 sightings recorded the year prior. According to biologists, most of these animals appear to be transient males pushing out of neighboring Pennsylvania and West Virginia, but noted that a smaller number of resident females (even some with cubs) are establishing themselves, particularly in the northeast corner of the state.
“Over the last few years, black bear reports in Ohio have increased significantly, prompting a need to investigate their distribution and habitat requirements within the state,” Tory Westall, a PhD student from the University of Dayton said. “Recolonizing populations are frequently returning to degraded and/or fragmented habitats, and understanding their ecology is important to ensuring the population persists.”
A female with cub | ODNR
In an attempt to get a better idea about what this expanding population is actually up to, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources Division of Wildlife has partnered with the Gantchoff Lab at the University of Dayton on a five-year research project. So far they have fitted GPS collars on five bears and have ear tagged two others. These high-tech collars record a location roughly every 90 minutes and are programmed to drop off after about 18 months, giving researchers clean data on movement, habitat use, survival, and reproduction without leaving the hardware as a permanent fixture on the animals.
In what is one of the more striking captures, researchers noted that in June of this year, they were able to collar an impressive 576-pound boar in Ashtabula County they believe still has room to grow. That large male is now playing a key role in the research project by transmitting locations that will help effectively map out how large males are utilizing Ohio’s fragmented landscape.
The big fella with his new collar | ODNR
Researchers stated that they are hoping this big boar will mirror the story of another previously tagged male who covered hundreds of miles through Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York before being struck and killed by a vehicle last summer. The data confirmed that these animals obviously do not respect state lines, and a single male’s home range can stretch across 300 square miles when habitat and food allow it. Females, on the other hand, are found to typically operate on smaller scales of about 50 square miles but both sexes ramp up movement during the mid-May to late-June breeding window.
"That's why the home range estimate is important to us because it tells us a lot about how many bears the state could potentially support," Katie Dennison, bear expert for the Ohio Department of Natural Resources said.
The route as taken by one previously tagged boar | Ohio DNR
The practical goal of the study is twofold and includes first building a realistic picture of how many bears the state’s current habitat can support and how the population is growing. Secondly, researchers are hoping to reduce the odds of conflict before numbers climb higher. Even though black bears are rarely aggressive toward people, they are opportunistic and will take easy calories wherever they find them. The DNR and the research team are already urging residents to secure trash, take down bird feeders when bears are active in an area, keep pet food indoors and to report sightings (with photos when possible) through the Ohio Division of Wildlife’s online tools.
In what is quickly becoming another genuine recovery in action, it’s always nice to watch an animal that was once erased from the landscape finding its way back through a combination of habitat, protection, and simple persistence.
If the population continues to grow and establish itself the way the early data suggests, Ohio, which is one of the country’s most dedicated hunting states, may eventually face the good problem of deciding how to manage that recovered black bear population, seasons and all.
As of right now, that conversation is still years away but the fact that it’s even conceivable again is the real story.
