{"id":30353,"date":"2020-04-01T15:10:11","date_gmt":"2020-04-01T19:10:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/?p=30353"},"modified":"2020-04-01T15:10:11","modified_gmt":"2020-04-01T19:10:11","slug":"black-bears-emerging-from-dens-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/2020\/04\/01\/black-bears-emerging-from-dens-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Black Bears Emerging from Dens"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Marylanders Urged to Keep Bears Wild<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright \" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/8631\/29773388943_f26a8ef9b0.jpg\" alt=\"Photo of black bear on hillside\" width=\"347\" height=\"248\" \/>After a mild winter, Maryland&#8217;s black bears are starting to leave their winter slumber to search for food. Natural food sources for bears \u2014 such as plants, berries, and insects \u2014 are in short supply until later in the spring, so bears are looking for anything that smells like food. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Homeowners who leave human-generated food sources out in the open may unintentionally draw bears to residential areas. Residents of Maryland\u2019s bear country are urged to be proactive and exercise good judgment to avoid creating man-made attractions for bears.\u00a0<\/span><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/dnr.maryland.gov\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Maryland Department of Natural Resources<\/span><\/a> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">advises:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Locking garbage in a bear-proof trash bin or storing trash containers in a locked garage or shed until the morning of trash pickup;<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Rinsing out trash containers with ammonia to eliminate odors;<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Storing cooking grills inside and keeping them clean of food residue; and<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Removing backyard bird feeders from April through November (birds have plenty of wild food sources during this time).<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">&#8220;Keeping bears wild is a community effort that benefits bears and people,\u201d said Wildlife and Heritage Director Paul Peditto. \u201cUsing care to avoid attracting bears now will help keep them away throughout the year and ensure they remain in the wild.&#8221;\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Bears are most common in Maryland&#8217;s four westernmost counties \u2013 Allegany, Frederick, Garrett and Washington. However, they can be found anywhere in central and southern Maryland, particularly during spring when young male bears tend to wander into new areas looking for a chance to establish their own territory.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">More information on living with bears is available<\/span> <a href=\"http:\/\/dnr.maryland.gov\/wildlife\/Pages\/hunt_trap\/bblivingwith.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">online<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Marylanders Urged to Keep Bears Wild After a mild winter, Maryland&#8217;s black bears are starting to leave their winter slumber to search for food. Natural food sources for bears \u2014 such as plants, berries, and insects \u2014 are in short supply until later in the spring, so bears are looking for anything that smells like<a href=\"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/2020\/04\/01\/black-bears-emerging-from-dens-2\/\">&nbsp;&nbsp;Read the Rest&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":146,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[957,13],"tags":[2948,3531,2918,2949,2909,5056],"class_list":["post-30353","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-appnews","category-wildlife","tag-allegany-county","tag-black-bears","tag-frederick-county","tag-garrett-county","tag-washington-county","tag-western-maryland"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30353","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/146"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30353"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30353\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30355,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30353\/revisions\/30355"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}