Bear sightings growing in Ohio

Plain Dealer

CLEVELAND

A young black bear outside an apartment building made headlines and newscasts in Greater Cleveland last week, but population trends suggest that bear sightings in urban areas of Northeast Ohio may become more common.

Experts say thriving bear populations in Pennsylvania and West Virginia are pushing young males west into Ohio in search of their own territories. It’s not unusual, according to researchers, for a young male to wander more than 100 miles.

“They’re just like teenage boys,” said state wildlife research biologist Suzie Prange. “They’re out there on their own for the first time, and they’re looking for a girlfriend. They get into trouble.”

That might explain the sighting of the young black bear in a tree outside a Rockside Road apartment complex Tuesday and in Warrensville Heights on Thursday. Statewide, sightings have jumped from about 30 in 1998 to 152 in 2011, though researchers are not certain how many of the bears are permanent residents.

In the Mahoning Valley, bears have been sighted in Canfield, Poland and Liberty this summer.

The Division of Wildlife estimates 50 to 100 black bears live in the state. Sightings are concentrated mostly in the eastern half of the state, though the animals have been spotted as far west as Dayton.

Black bear populations are growing throughout the nation. Some states have responded by expanding hunting. Florida removed black bears from its endangered species list in June because their numbers have grown to more than 3,000.

Black bears once thrived in Ohio forests as well, but hunting and deforestation squeezed them out more than a century ago. But reforestation of former farmland and a ban on bear hunting is fueling a comeback.

Laurie Graber, a researcher with the state Division of Wildlife, said she expects her agency to be dealing more with black bears in the Cleveland metro area. But for now, she said, the comeback will be tempered by a low breeding population in Ohio.

State wildlife officials have not confirmed the presence of breeding females in Ohio, but believe a small population exists. Most sightings are of young males, which are far more likely to be spotted. They wander into neighborhoods and knock over garbage cans and bird feeders, while females are more reclusive, said Prange

Prange is involved in a pilot project to place GPS collars on two bears — one in northeastern Ohio and one in the southeast — to better understand their movements.

“We don’t know for sure where [they live] and how many residents we have,” she said.

Ashtabula and Geauga counties had the most sightings by far last year. Most bear sightings in Cuyahoga County have been along the eastern border, including Gates Mills and the North and South Chagrin Reservations of Cleveland Metroparks.

“It’s still a rare occurrence,” said Carl Casavecchia, manager of the Metroparks’ Garfield Park Nature Center. Though the number of bears in Ohio is expected to increase, he doesn’t think Metroparks hikers have to worry about bear encounters any time soon.

But, “You never know. Fifty years from now, maybe we’ll be talking about the bear problem in the Cleveland Metroparks,” he said.