Duane Hicks
With the region having seen an unusually mild and short winter, black bears are starting to stir early this spring.
As such, the Ministry of Natural Resources is urging the public to take heed that they will be hungry.
“It’s a bit early in the northwest and the northeast,” MNR “Bear Wise” co-ordinator Linda Wall said yesterday from Timmins.
“Generally, we don’t see bears coming out until the middle of April or later April,” she noted.
Wall said she just had a picture e-mailed to her of a bear spotted Monday in a forested area near Fort Frances.
A bear also was reported on someone’s deck in Kenora, and another bear recently was killed on the highway near Kirkland Lake.
As well, there’s been numerous sightings in the Sudbury area, and in the northern parts of southern Ontario.
“So, they are out and about,” said Wall, who explained a bit about black bears’ seasonal routine.
“Bears aren’t true hibernators and when their dens get wet, they do come out,” she noted. “They will go back in if there’s no food available because remember they aren’t true hibernators, and they only hibernate because they can’t get food [during the winter].”
However, the concern is some younger bears (i.e., one or two years old) went into their dens for the winter without knowing to fatten up enough or eating the right foods.
“They go into the dens just a little bit less conditioned, and they often don’t select as good a den as they should because it’s a learning process and, last year, mom did it for them.
“Those are the ones we would be concerned about,” Wall said.
Now that they’re coming out, and natural food sources aren’t ready, they could turn to non-natural food sources.
“So we’re trying to get that out to people that it’s early, but we need them to take down their birdfeeder, be extra cautious with garbage, and, of course, because it’s nice and everybody’s out barbecuing, clean those barbecues and that sort of thing,” Wall remarked.
“The bears will be particularly hungry because they’re out of the dens, and the food is scarce, if available at all, and if they decide to go foraging, they’ll go the closest available supply,” she stressed.
“If they’re near your home or your property or your community, they will smell the food and they will come in.
“They’re hungry and they have a incredible sense of smell.
“The unfortunate thing is when we say to people, ‘Make sure there’s nothing for the bears,’ they think about food,” Wall added. “But bears will eat almost anything—if you can chew and swallow it, a bear is likely to eat it, especially if they’re very hungry.
“They’re coming out of the dens, they haven’t eaten in six months, they’re in a negative energy balance, and quite frankly, if they don’t find food, they will die.
“It’s a survival thing.”
The public can get more information about the MNR’s “BearWise” program at www.ontario.ca/bearwise
After April 1, the public is encouraged to report bear sightings by calling the “BearWise” hotline at 1-866-514-2327.
If the matter is urgent and there is any potential danger, residents are directed to call the OPP’s communications centre at 1-888-310-1122, not the local detachment or the town.
Wall said the MNR also encourages schools to teach children about black bears at this time of year, and they’ve developed a black bear ecology curriculum for Grades 2, 4, and 7.
This curriculum, which has been approved and recommended by Curriculum Services Canada, has been sent to most elementary schools in Ontario and also is available at www.ontario.ca/bearwise
“It’s really helpful when schools help us out and teach kids about what they should do if they encounter a bear,” Wall said.
“They’re good about reminding their parents about cleaning the barbecue and not putting out the garbage the night before, those kinds of things,” she noted.
