Black Bear Complaints Are Up In NY – Here’s Why

Between the Adirondacks and the Catskill Mountains, black bear sightings and reports have gone up this year compared to previous years and the reasons are simple.

It's been a dry summer in 2018 compared to years past. So dry that blueberries, raspberries and other staples of the black bear diet haven't been readily available yet this season, forcing bears to look for food through other sources - namely humans.

That means an increase of sightings near campsites and homes where they look for garbage, pet food, bird seed or any other food source.

NyUp.com reports that the DEC estimates more than 6,000 black bears call New York State home, and while NY has never seen a fatal attack on a hiker or camper that number is a cause for concern because of the growing black bear population in NY.

The DEC says New York campers are in for a 'high conflict year,' and that's evident already by a few videos we've seen from the Adirondacks.

Oh and they can open car doors too, so be sure to lock your doors and make sure there is absolutely no food in your vehicle.

The DEC has several tips and strategies to reduce what they call 'human-bear conflicts,' and you can find them along with other useful information on how to deal with bears in the wild at DEC.gov.

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