Bear complaints at a ten-year high compared to last year’s record low

The number of black bear complaints in Minnesota has reached a new high this year, and the number shows no signs of abating in late summer.

Complaints are usually more common in the spring, when bears awake hungry from hibernation. So why are bears causing so much excitement again this year? Because an important food source – wild berries – is in short supply.

“Last year, I believe, was the fourth best year for food supplies we’ve ever had and the fewest bear complaints we’ve ever had,” said Andy Tri, bear scientist with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. “The DNR has been recording bear complaints since 1980, with this year seeing the highest number of complaints in a decade, and that’s primarily due to food.”

Tri said that in a difficult berry year, bears will look for easily accessible food sources such as garbage and birdhouses.

“Berry production was just barely profitable,” Tri said.

“No serviceberries and very few bird cherries. I haven’t seen a blueberry in Itasca County all year. Only a few bags in St. Louis [County] I found some there. The bears are hungrier, and it’s been that way all summer.”

Since bears don’t have access to those calories in the forest as they prepare for hibernation, they will use their powerful noses to search for alternative food sources, Tri explained.

“Now they go into hyperphagia mode, where they have to eat between 12,000 and 20,000 calories a day,” Tri said. “The starting point is Michael Phelps’ training diet for the Olympics, and then it just goes up from there.”

This isn’t the first time a year of poor food production has triggered an influx of bears, but that may be only part of the equation.

“There are some historical records of Duluth at the turn of the century where there was an influx of bears into the city,” Tri said.

An example of this is an incident on August 18, In 1929, a 350-pound bear was shot after it could not be lassoed in the Duluth Hotel cafe. The bear broke through a window, supposedly attracted by the smell of food.

Tri said bears migrate along historic routes and that the bears that destroy trash and birdhouses in the spring are different from those trying to invade human property today.

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“In the 80s and 90s there weren’t many bears., than we do now. There were severe food shortages across the state and some of the bears moved into what used to be prairies,” Tri said.

As opportunists, bears use their keen sense of smell to locate food and will return again and again when they find food sources.

Tri recommends securing garbage cans in a garage or other outbuilding and not setting up bird feeders in the summer. Other bear attractions include fish giblets, pet food and grease on outdoor grills.

Tri said a growing bear population means more young bears on the landscape. Bear cubs live with their mothers for the first year before venturing out on their own in May and June, another difficult time of year for bears to feed.

“Many young bears appear in random places where we would not expect them, such as the Union Depot in St. Paul,” said Tri.

Tri said that even with a small bear population, there would still be conflicts due to bird feeders and garbage.

“If bears didn’t cause problems or destroy property, we could probably sustain a population 10 times larger,” he said. “But that’s only part of it. Human-bear conflict is just a byproduct of a healthy and resilient bear population.”

Tri said the bear population in the Bemidji area is increasing faster than in the far northeastern part of the state. In 2010, Minnesota’s bear population was between 10,000 and 14,000. Now that number is closer to 17,000.

Because bear hunting season begins on Sunday, September 1, hunters are asked not to harvest collared bears.

“We are conducting a reproductive study and it takes an average of five years for bears to reach the age where they can have their first cubs,” Tri explained.

“And when they are shot at, [age] 2 to 4, we don’t get that data point at 4 or 5 when they decide to have young. So it’s a lot of effort for not as much data as we potentially could have.”

The collared bears are located in the Grand Rapids and Little Falls areas and wear cattle ear tags.