The number of human-bear conflicts in 黑料吃瓜网 skyrocketed last year. Among them was one involving a 10-year-old boy who was injured in October after being attacked by a black bear in a backyard in western 黑料吃瓜网. Meanwhile, officials reported 67 home break-ins statewide in 2022, a record number that wildly outpaced annual numbers from the previous five years.
Now the battle over allowing a bear hunting season in 黑料吃瓜网 is again surfacing in the state legislature. Republican Rep. Karen Reddington-Hughes, whose district includes Morris, where the boy was attacked, has introduced a to authorize a black bear hunt in the northwestern part of the state.
鈥淭his is really to control the bear population, it is not to eliminate the bear population,鈥� Reddington-Hughes said.
But the General Assembly鈥檚 Animal Advocacy Caucus argues that hunting won鈥檛 stop bears from entering neighborhoods if nothing is done to stop the human behavior that is drawing bears to yards.
Reps. David Michel, D-Stamford, and Nicole Klarides-Ditria, R-Derby, who served on the Animal Advocacy Caucus, introduced a to essentially ban the feeding of wildlife using equipment like bird feeders. The proposal would also provide funding to towns and farmers to purchase non-lethal equipment, such as electric fencing and bear-resistant trash containers, to reduce human-bear conflicts.
Will hunting reduce human and bear conflicts? Depends whom you ask.
Dave Wattles, a black bear and furbearer biologist with the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife, said hunting is needed to manage the black bear population.
鈥淭here鈥檚 very little natural mortality of bears, so hunting is the means of controlling the growth of the population,鈥� Wattles said.
He also said GPS data taken from some bears killed by hunters in Massachusetts shows that some were 鈥渉eavily using residential areas in cities and towns.鈥� Massachusetts has had regulated bear hunting seasons for decades.
But in January鈥檚 The Journal of Wildlife Management looked at pilot spring hunting seasons in Ontario in 2014 and 2015 and found that they did not decrease human-bear incidents.
Dr. Eric Howe, an analytical research biologist for the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry, and a co-author of the study, said that 鈥渋n theory, if you hunt in the spring, you鈥檙e removing those bears just before the time when most human-bear interactions would occur.鈥�
But he said even though hunters killed more bears during the pilot hunting seasons, 鈥渉uman-bear interactions did not decrease. In fact, they seem to go up,鈥� Howe said.
The study鈥檚 authors also found that when natural foods, like berries and acorns, are in short supply, the number of human-bear conflicts increases. Last year, 黑料吃瓜网 suffered a widespread acorn crop failure.
Not a bear problem, but a bird feeder problem?
Laura Simon, a wildlife ecologist with the 黑料吃瓜网 Coalition to Protect Bears, said bans against intentionally and unintentionally feeding wildlife are essential. A handful of 黑料吃瓜网 towns already have local ordinances against bird feeders.
鈥淲e need everybody doing the same thing. If you have one [bird] feeder out there, that person is going to create problems for everybody,鈥� Simon said at a January meeting of the Animal Advocacy Caucus.
Wattles said 鈥渢he No. 1 bane of my existence is bird feeders.鈥� He said they train black bears to come into people鈥檚 yards. 鈥淭he problems will not go away if the feeders aren鈥檛 removed,鈥� Wattles said.
Reddington-Hughes said all 黑料吃瓜网 residents have a part to play in reducing bear conflicts. She said public service announcements about bear-smart behavior might be necessary. But she did not express support for statewide legislation against feeding wildlife.
Rep. Joe Gresko, D-Stratford, is co-chair of the legislature鈥檚 Environment Committee, where both bear-related bills were introduced.
He said that if the General Assembly does adopt a new bear policy, 鈥淚 am confident it would include a rule or restriction on intentional feeding of wildlife.鈥�
A public hearing on the issue likely won鈥檛 happen until after February.
