VIRGINIA BLACK BEAR What Kind of Bears Are In Virginia? 101 Jaime Sajecki Bear Project Leader ………Black Bears! What Kind of Bears Are In What Kind of Bears Are In Virginia? Virginia? Brown and Blond Phase Black Bear Cubs Brown Bear What Kind of Bears Are In What Kind of Bears Are In Virginia? Virginia? Only 58% of Virginians correctly named black bears as the only species of bear living in Virginia. Brown Bear Brown Bear 1 Weight Males (boars) Females (sows) adult weight adult weight LIFE HISTORY 200-500 100-250 OF BLACK pounds pounds BEARS Large, Non-retractable Claws Senses Nearsighted Keen sense of smell/hearing Bears can see in color: This helps them find insects and small Climbing trees colorful berries while foraging. Digging up insects Bears stand on their hind legs to get a better view and to smell and “taste” the air Defense Behaviors Movements SPRING/SUMMER Solitary most of the time. • Bears leave dens in search of food - Food is limited Active at dawn and dusk • Female bears : Travel with cubs • Male bears: Mostly solitary Omnivorous and opportunistic • Yearlings may be with siblings • Yearlings left to fend for themselves when female ready to mate again 2 Movements What Bears Eat FALL • ~75% of the bear’s diet consists of vegetative FOOD! FOOD! FOOD! matter; berries, nuts, grasses, and fruits Bears can forage up to 20 hours a day in preparation for denning • ~25% consists of insects, larvae, carrion, small animals, and fish. Although they are not particularly good hunters, they have been known to prey on small to medium- sized mammals such as rodents and deer fawns. What Bears Eat What Bears Eat Spring Summer/Fall What do ants and hot tubs have in common? Grasses/Forbes Berries (blue-, huckle-, black-, Insects/Larvae wild straw-) Skunk Cabbage Hard mast Squaw Root Dogwood Wild Grapes Serviceberry Formic acid Mountain-ash Hawthorn Formic acid is probably a reason bears sometimes bite into insulated Chokecherry snowmobile seats, hot tub covers, and refrigerator walls. These items all produce formic acid when the formaldehyde in the insulation breaks down, Tearing apart stump to get Pokeberry making them smell like ant colonies. at ant larvae Squaw Root Sassafras The Importance of Home Range Fall Foods Males: • Bears may gain > 1-2 pounds per • 10-300 square miles day beginning in late summer Females: through the fall in preparation for denning • 1-50 square miles • Need high energy foods (protein, carbohydrates, and fat) to gain weight • Most important = Acorns Home ranges of bears vary: – During good mast years, bears may than double their body season, habitat quality, reproductive status weight between August and December. Male hr usually include female hr • Cultivated corn, peaches, Female hr usually overlap cherries, apples, and other fruits attract bears especially when natural food sources are scarce 3 Habitat Requirements Winter “Hibernation” Not True Hibernators : body temperature comes within ~2 °F • Food of surrounding temperature • Water Bear body temperature only falls 9-14°F • Escape cover • Den sites •Do not eat, drink, urinate or True hibernator • A variety of habitat types defecate • Ideal habitat includes combinations of mast producing trees, early •Respiration/heart rates successional habitats, edges decrease of various successional stages, streamside management zones, and •May lose 30% body weight wildlife clearings. •Easily aroused from slumber Winter “Hibernation” Reproduction Enter dens: Oct.-Jan. • Sexually mature ~ age 3.5 • Time of entry depends on reproductive status, weather, and available foods Ground dens • Reproduce every 2 years • Breed late June - August Den sites in Virginia • Rock cavities, excavations, brush piles, trees, snags • Fertilized egg “floats” until • In western Virginia, they use a high percentage of December (delayed tree dens (~69%). • In eastern Virginia, they more often found in ground implantation) dens. Tree den Reproduction Mortality • Cubs born mid-late January in • 20-25% cub mortality rate during the first year den (½ to ¾ lbs) – Cub losses due to predation or separation from the • Litter size ~2.5, range 1-4 female. • Born blind and helpless • Rely on their mother through 1 day old cub • Adult mortality low (<2% annually) the next denning season – No natural predators – Relatively unaffected by parasites and diseases • Mortality related to human activity has the greatest impact on black bear survival in Virginia 5 day old cub 4 Bear Population Dynamics • Populations grow very slowly – Max. 25% increase per year, not hunted BLACK BEAR • Hunting mortality is additive – Bears killed by hunters are in addition to PROGRAM those who would have died from natural causes HISTORY Low population growth + limited reproductive potential = slow population recovery from over harvest or low pop. levels Population Declines Population Recovery • Pre 20th Century - limited info. • 1911 land purchases began • Early 1600’s, Colonial times - – Mt Rogers, Natural Bridge, abundant statewide Shenandoah National Park • 1739 bears only in western mountains and swamps • Ag-land began reverting back • By 1900 - near extinction in VA to forests – typical agriculture; extensive • Creation of parks secured deforestation, burning, grazing, protected habitat for bears cultivation = little habitat left for bears 1950’s Population Recovery Occupied Black Bear Range • Bear numbers began to recover by mid 1940’s in some western counties • Population has been steadily growing and expanding • Today, all counties open to bear hunting in Virginia • ~ 90% of VA counties 5 1970’s 1980’s Occupied Black Bear Range Occupied Black Bear Range 1990’s 2001 Occupied Black Bear Range Occupied Black Bear Range Present Occupied Black Bear Range Population Density You live in bear country! 6 Bear Management Actions & Research Programs • Hunting Regulation Changes – Hunting regulations historically (since 1930) encouraged bear population growth. Hunting • Nuisance Bear Management BLACK BEAR • Restoration in southwest Virginia – 210 bears to Mt. Rogers area (starting in PROJECT late 80’s) • Population monitoring programs – Harvest information • Bear Research in Virginia – Since the 1950’s: population dynamics, movements, sex ratios, age structure, reproduction, survival rates, mortality factors, population size, food habits, home range, denning ecology, etc. Bear Project Components Bear Habitat • Habitat Forests = 62% of Virginia’s land area. • Population • Human/Bear Interaction • Bear Related Recreation Bear Habitat Bear Habitat • Hardwood forests make up 78% Since 1992, over 961 square mi of forested • Softwood forests make up 22% land have been lost to land-use changes; – (62%) cleared for urban development • Future potential impacts on bear – (37%) agricultural use populations – Decreased timber harvesting – (1%) conversion to water impoundments. on public lands reduce forest habitat diversity. – Habitat fragmentation – Barriers (high volume roads). 7 Bear Population Bear Population Population Status Population Distribution • Bear populations have increased in Virginia and throughout the eastern United States during the past quarter century. • Black bears occur in all 13 of the southeastern states. • No practical methods exist to accurately and precisely estimate black • The bears in Virginia’s western mountains belong to bear population size in Virginia. the largest contiguous bear population in the • Bear population status is obtained by monitoring indices derived from southeast. harvest and age structure. • Virginia’s largest bear populations: – Trends – Population Reconstruction – in and around the Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge in southeastern Virginia • Modeling indices provide a current statewide population ~ 16,000 bears. – along the Blue Ridge Mountains – in the Allegheny Mountains. • Virginia’s bears are established across most of the state and may be seen in almost any county. Bear Population Bear Population • Multi-year trends in harvest data generally correspond to overall population trends. 22 Bear Management Zone Analysis • Since 2001, the statewide bear population has been increasing at about 9.5% annually. 2400 2000 1600 1200 2001 BMP <1000 bears/year in harvest 800 Bears Harvested 400 0 1928 1931 1934 1937 1940 1943 1946 1949 1952 1955 1958 1961 1964 1967 1970 1973 1976 1979 1982 1985 1988 1991 1994 1997 2000 2003 2006 2009 Year Bear Damage Bear Damage 2001-2009 bear complaints: BEAR DAMAGE DEMANDS 500 67.5% non-agricultural/residential concerns 450 22.8% agricultural 400 350 9.7% other issues 300 250 200 Complaints (#) Complaints 150 100 50 0 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s Average number of bear related complaints by decade (1970 – 2009). 8 Bear Related Public Bear Values Recreation Other Public Bear Values A symbol of the American wilderness, bears are valuable to many Wildlife Watching citizens simply because they exist in their native ecosystems. • Important to Virginians 81% of all wildlife-associated recreation Also used as an indicator of ecological health. in Virginia is wildlife watching Bear Population 1999 survey: black bears were second to raptors as the Public opinion: statewide population objectives, local population objectives animals Virginians were most interested in taking a trip to see. Cultural carrying capacity: Bear Hunting the maximum number of bears in an area that is acceptable to the human population. Black Bear MANAGEMENT OBJECTIVES Population Management: BLACK BEAR Designed to increase, decrease, or stabilize population levels in a MANAGEMENT given area.