{"id":44401,"date":"2025-04-10T09:00:28","date_gmt":"2025-04-10T13:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/?p=44401"},"modified":"2025-04-10T09:10:48","modified_gmt":"2025-04-10T13:10:48","slug":"as-marylands-black-bears-emerge-from-winter-dens-residents-and-visitors-can-help-keep-them-wild","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/2025\/04\/10\/as-marylands-black-bears-emerge-from-winter-dens-residents-and-visitors-can-help-keep-them-wild\/","title":{"rendered":"As Maryland\u2019s Black Bears Emerge from Winter Dens, Residents and Visitors Can Help Keep Them Wild"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"width: 388px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/53216047689_79539b3256.jpg\" alt=\"Black bear wandering across a field\" width=\"378\" height=\"292\" \/><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo by Mitch Adolph, submitted to the 2023 <a href=\"https:\/\/dnr.maryland.gov\/Pages\/photocontest.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Maryland DNR photo contest<\/a>.<\/p><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">In portions of the state, black bears have vacated their dens and started exploring the areas around them. Homeowners who leave human-generated food sources out in the open \u2013 like birdseed, chicken feed, dog food and even trash \u2013 may unintentionally draw bears to residential areas. The <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/dnr.maryland.gov\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Maryland Department of Natural Resources<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> advises residents and visitors to avoid creating man-made bear attractions.\u00a0<\/span><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cAfter months of not eating or drinking, bears are hungry and in search of easy food,\u201d said Jonathan Trudeau, Game Mammal Section Leader for DNR\u2019s Wildlife and Heritage Service. \u201cBlack bears rely on their powerful sense of smell to locate food and are attracted to anything that resembles the scent of food. Once a black bear finds an easy meal, they are likely to be repeat visitors.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">When young bears are exposed to easy human-generated food sources, it teaches them that the tastiest food comes from people. Exposure to these easy food sources can, and does, lead to a lifelong change in behavior that puts bears at risk due to the close proximity to humans. To avoid attracting bears, Maryland DNR strongly encourages residents who live in and near bear habitats to:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Remove backyard bird feeders from April through November (birds have plenty of wild food sources during this time);<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Lock garbage in a bear-proof trash bin or storing trash containers in a locked garage or shed until the morning of trash pickup and rinsing out trash containers with ammonia to eliminate odors;<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Store pet food inside and avoid leaving food bowls unattended; and<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Store cooking grills inside and keep them clean of food residue.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cEnsuring Maryland\u2019s bears stay wild is a large-scale effort that benefits our bears and the Maryland public,\u201d said Wildlife and Heritage Director Karina Stonesifer. \u201cTaking small steps now and integrating it as part of your routine throughout the year helps to keep our bears wild.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Bears are most common in Maryland\u2019s 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 place to establish their own territory.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">For more information on living with black bears and bear behavior, please visit the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/dnr.maryland.gov\/wildlife\/Pages\/hunt_trap\/bblivingwith.aspx\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Maryland Department of Natural Resources black bear page<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> or <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/bearwise.org\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">BearWise<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, a partner non-governmental organization dedicated to providing the public with sound, relevant, and easily interpretable information on black bears.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In portions of the state, black bears have vacated their dens and started exploring the areas around them. Homeowners who leave human-generated food sources out in the open \u2013 like birdseed, chicken feed, dog food and even trash \u2013 may unintentionally draw bears to residential areas. The Maryland Department of Natural Resources advises residents and<a href=\"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/2025\/04\/10\/as-marylands-black-bears-emerge-from-winter-dens-residents-and-visitors-can-help-keep-them-wild\/\">&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":[2946,5578,3531],"class_list":["post-44401","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-appnews","category-wildlife","tag-bears","tag-bearwise","tag-black-bears"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44401","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=44401"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44401\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44408,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44401\/revisions\/44408"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}