It must be spring—the bears are back! Almost like clockwork, people in this area are starting to report bear sightings, as they do every spring. And those lucky enough to have their cellphone cameras handy might just be able to snap a lasting memory—and proof that it wasn’t their imagination.
During the week of May 15, two black bears were reported in Harvard and Bolton. In Harvard, there were sightings on Haskell and Abbot lanes. In Bolton, there were sightings on Frye Road and off Sugar Road, between Interstate 495 and Colonial Candies.
Interestingly, the bears seen in Harvard were in an area that could connect with what Bolton police officer Luke Hamburger calls Bolton’s “bear highway.” Hamburger told the Press that this familiar migration path seems to go from Still River Road (probably with a stop at the Bolton Flats Wildlife Management Area), then to the Green Road area, and then through wetlands out to Sugar and Corn roads, close to I-495, a distance of a good six miles.
Are the Harvard and Bolton bears one and the same? And are the reported sightings in the area multiple sightings of the same bear, or separate sightings of multiple bears? The answer is, it’s hard to say.
Marion Larson, chief of information and education for MassWildlife, told the Press, “There are some specific reasons people are seeing bears this time of year. Yearlings are being chased away by their moms, who are getting ready to breed.” She said the males wander off looking to establish a new territory, but the young females tend to make new homes not too far from their mothers.
According to the MassWildlife website, the home range of a male bear, east of the Connecticut River, is about 120 square miles; females usually stay in an area of 16 to 20 square miles. So some of the sightings in Harvard and Bolton could well be the same bear.
However, in Harvard, police officer Tim Schaeffer is pretty sure there are at least two bears, one usually seen on the north side of town, the other on the south side. How can he tell? “One of them is tagged, the other isn’t,” he said. In fact, one observant Harvard resident who reported a bear sighting two weeks ago reported seeing a tag on its ear.
Larson said that a tagged bear is most likely a male that has been moved. “It would be interesting to know what color the tag was,” she said, “because that would indicate why it was moved and where it was moved from.” She added that male bears are only tagged when they have had a “close encounter” with humans that makes it desirable for them to be moved.
However, Larson said, females are actively sought out for tagging, and when caught, are affixed with GPS-enabled collars as part of a study of their migration patterns in rural versus urban areas.
According to MassWildlife, the American black bear is the only bear found in Massachusetts, and seeing one around here is less of a novelty than it used to be. The website reports that black bears have become increasingly common in Massachusetts and have been growing in numbers and distribution here for the past 35 years. They are known to live and breed in the Berkshires, northern Middlesex County—and right here in Worcester County. The black bear population in Massachusetts is estimated to be 4,000 to 5,000, Larson said. She noted that the bears are gradually continuing their eastward migration—they’ve even been spotted on Cape Cod. She said, “I-495 seems to be the next frontier.”
Larson pointed out that the farther east the bears go, the more likely they are to encounter people who are afraid of them. She said people should rest assured that “the presence of a bear does not constitute a public safety threat. Bears are afraid of people and will flee or climb a tree if they have the opportunity.”
What to do
Although the number of bear sightings may change each year, the advice on what to do about them doesn’t, and it is worth repeating. Larson said that people should leave the bear alone; keep far away and do not try to follow or track it.
MassWildlife offers these tips:
- Remove food sources. If you use bird feeders, don’t put them out after February when bears start to wake from their winter naps; don’t leave pet food outside.
- Secure trash; put trash barrels out the morning of trash pickup, not the previous evening. Store all garbage in closed containers in a garage or outbuilding. For especially smelly garbage, like fish remains, use double bags or sprinkle with ammonia, and store in a garage or outbuilding until the morning of trash pickup.
- If you compost, don’t throw meat scraps or greasy, oily, and sweet materials into your compost pile.
- To protect livestock and crops, use temporary electric fencing.
MassWildlife has a wealth of additional detailed information on its website on bear behavior and how to discourage them from going after livestock, chicken coops, and beehives. Visit www.mass.gov/bears to learn more.
