MIKE BRAUN Bearing down on roaming bruins

If you're gonna live in these here parts, you're gonna have to learn to grin and bear it. The bears, I mean.
The past 10 days have given Northeast Ohioans the same experiences that many Pennsylvanians have been having for years.
Bears in the back yard. Bears in the trash bins. Bears by the schools. Bears all over the place. Reports submitted monthly by Pennsylvania Game Commission wildlife officers often have tales to tell of bear-resident encounters. Almost without exception, those encounters end without incident.
According to officials with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources Division of Wildlife, there are at least 10 other bears of the same general age roaming Northeast Ohio now. That hasn't changed despite the capture of the two Trumbull County bears.
That point was proved Tuesday afternoon when one of those "other" bears was seen in the Liberty/Girard area. It was eventually trapped and relocated to the Grand River Wildlife Area.
Positive encounter
In the previous bear encounter, the bruin involved was captured, without injury to it or anybody else, and then released into the wild. It was generally a positive encounter.
The Liberty bear was immobilized before wildlife officers and biologists took its temperature, measurements of neck, shoulders, and paws, weight (it was a 228 pound male), and extracted a small tooth (first premolar) for aging purposes.
Both bears were tagged in each ear with yellow tags.
"They are good and healthy and almost exclusively male," said Bill King, DOW supervisor for Trumbull, Mahoning, Columbiana, Portage, Stark, Medina and Summit counties at the District Three headquarters in Akron.
Wildlife officials transported the first bear after its capture to an unspecified but local wildlife area. King, who has been dealing with bears in Ohio for the past 13 years, expressed concern that the bear may not find life in the wild to its liking.
"We hope that the bear found [the recent incident] to be an unpleasant experience," said King.
"However, there are no guarantees when it comes to full Dumpsters and easy food. Especially if the bear finds humans an easy source to get food. All we can do is hope for the best," King said.
"Looking at it logically, he chose to come here," he said. "He was looking for a place where he was not going to get whupped by other bears or by his mother."
If residents encounter a bear, it should be left alone, Ohio game officials said.
"Bears are generally shy and try to avoid interaction with people. Keep in mind that more people die from beestings each year than are injured by black bears. As an additional note, black bears are a protected species in Ohio and injuring or killing one is a violation of Ohio wildlife laws," a state-prepared news release explained.
These two bears got a free pass this time, but if either manages to return and causes a ruckus again, the end might not be so positive.
Problem bear
According to King, a problem bear is defined as a bear that exhibits no fear of humans, returns repeatedly to human food sources (such as trash, bird feeders, beehives), or doesn't respond to hazing (pyrotechnics, air horns, other noise deterrents, pepper spray in rare cases, constructing fencing around beehives, etc.).
The DOW's first option in these cases is removal of food sources and hazing, King explained, as long as these activities do not force the bear into a threatening public safety situation.
Secondly, if hazing proves ineffective or escape is unlikely, live trapping and/or an immobilization effort to relocate the animal follows, King said.
Lastly, if the bear has been relocated twice previously and/or the bear is an immediate threat to the public, King explained, the bear must be euthanized, preferably by a veterinarian who can administer a lethal injection.
According to the DOW, black-bear sightings in Ohio have become much more common in recent years, largely because of the growing populations of bear in neighboring states. According to estimates, as many as 17,000 black bears live in Pennsylvania and another 8,000 to 10,000 in West Virginia. Black bears are crossing state boundaries and finding new homes in Ohio.
Reports vary
The DOW said that the number of bear reports received varies somewhat from year to year, but currently numbers around 50 and has included verified observations of sows, or females with cubs. The 50 or so usually translate into about 20-25 individual bears, as some bears are often reported more than once.
Most of the reports, the division said, are from Ohio's northeastern, eastern-central and southeastern counties, especially those bordering Pennsylvania and West Virginia. These reports, coupled with the verified observations of adults with young, strongly suggest that Ohio supports a small breeding population. The number of bears in the Buckeye State is expected to increase as bear populations in neighboring states expand.
In 2003, a record 128 black-bear sightings in 29 Ohio counties were reported to the state's wildlife division, which keeps tabs on resident and visiting bruins.
According to information from the DOW, June is prime time for spotting black bears because it is the time for "yearling dispersal," when a mother bear boots year-old cubs out of the family unit so she can raise her newborn cub or cubs. The yearlings then head out to find and establish their own territory.
Glad for assistance
As for the situation with the earlier bear, King was appreciative of the assistance of local police.
"We got excellent cooperation from the police," he said. "They treated us with the utmost respect."
King said that a police officer would have been within the law as it pertains to wildlife if forced to dispatch the bear in the case of a threatening situation.
"There is a section of the law that gives police officers a similar responsibility to us," he said, adding that he was glad the situation turned out as it did.
The DOW urges Ohio citizens who spot a bear to call (800) Wildlife or the DOW District Three HQ in Akron at (330) 644-2293.
braun@vindy.com