{"id":47093,"date":"2026-04-06T12:36:29","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T16:36:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/?p=47093"},"modified":"2026-04-07T17:07:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T21:07:14","slug":"black-bears-emerging-from-winter-dens-in-search-of-food-marylanders-advised-to-remove-backyard-bear-attractants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/2026\/04\/06\/black-bears-emerging-from-winter-dens-in-search-of-food-marylanders-advised-to-remove-backyard-bear-attractants\/","title":{"rendered":"Black Bears Emerging from Winter Dens in Search of Food; Marylanders Advised to Remove Backyard Bear Attractants"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"width: 396px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/7425\/27658254651_ba056a514c.jpg\" alt=\"Bear next to a porch in a yard\" width=\"386\" height=\"308\" \/><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">A black bear sighted on a property in Allegany County. Maryland Department of Natural Resources photo.<\/p><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In portions of Maryland, 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\u00a0<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/dnr.maryland.gov\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Maryland Department of Natural Resources<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> advises residents and visitors to avoid creating backyard bear attractions.<\/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 typically focus on finding water first and then high fiber foods, like skunk cabbage and grasses, but they will locate anything that resembles the scent of food. Once a black bear finds an easy meal, like a bird feeder or trash, 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;\">\u201cIt is important to ensure bear activity stays as natural as possible and not inadvertently promote human-bear conflict through our own actions,\u201d said Wildlife and Heritage Director Karina Stonesifer. \u201cThough it may mean a small amount of extra effort on our parts, we can all make small changes to our routines when in bear country to minimize any possible conflict and 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\u00a0<\/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;\">\u00a0or\u00a0<\/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.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In portions of Maryland, 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\u00a0Maryland Department of Natural Resources advises residents and visitors to<a href=\"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/2026\/04\/06\/black-bears-emerging-from-winter-dens-in-search-of-food-marylanders-advised-to-remove-backyard-bear-attractants\/\">&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":[3531,5269,5056],"class_list":["post-47093","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-appnews","category-wildlife","tag-black-bears","tag-spring","tag-western-maryland"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47093","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=47093"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47093\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47098,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47093\/revisions\/47098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}