The N.C Wildlife Resources Commission is already seeing a spike in black bear reports this spring.
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This comes as no surprise since the state’s residential footprint has grown and people are moving closer into bear habitat and creating opportunities for bears to approach their property, specifically by leaving out food sources.
Colleen Olfenbuttel, the Wildlife Commission’s black bear and furbearer biologist, offers some advice about how we can co-exist with black bears. She points to BearWise, an educational program the Commission employs developed by bear biologists from each of the 15 state wildlife agencies that make up the Southeastern Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies.