Bear population down some but still high
Vermont’s black bear population is estimated at roughly 6,300 to 7,600 based on 2023 data, the most recent available, according to the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department.
“The 2023 population estimate is a little lower than 2022’s 7,000 – 8,500, which was a five-year high for Vermont’s bears,” said wildlife biologist Jaclyn Comeau, who leads the Black Bear Project at the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department.
There are many factors that influence a bear population. These include habitat quality, year to year changes in the availability of wild foods, the balance of female to male bears as well as the proportions of different aged bears in that population, the number bears harvested by hunters each year, and the number of bears killed from non-hunting causes each year.
“A healthy bear population like Vermont’s has a natural cycle of peaks and dips that plays out over years,” said Comeau. “It is important to look at an individual year’s population estimate in context to larger trends over time.”
VT F&W image
After a consistent overall increase from the 1970s through the 1990s, Vermont’s bear population has been relatively stable through the 2000s, with periods of shorter-term growth and decline. Over the past five years the population has averaged an eight percent increase. Time will tell whether this increase is part of a shorter-term population cycle of peaks and dips or a longer-term change.
Today, Vermont’s healthy bear population is the result of a decades-long research and conservation effort that includes land protection, regulated hunting and significant public education on preventing conflicts with bears. As recently as the early 1970s Vermont’s bears were found only in mountainous areas and the Northeast Kingdom, and likely numbered between 1,500 and 3,500. Today they are found in every Vermont town except communities on the Lake Champlain Islands.
“Vermont’s black bears are a conservation success story, but our work isn’t done. If you live in Vermont, you live in bear country and you are responsible for preventing conflicts with bears,” said Comeau. “More than anything else, that means keeping human food like garbage and birdfeeders out of bears’ reach.”
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Categories: Outdoors, Press Release
Thank you Jaclyn Comeau for these facts. It makes disputing the “touchy feely” people anti-hunters easier when it’s in black and white .
Periodically just before bear season, a couple of trucks stop at a turnout on my property waiting for their dogs that they released some 5 miles away. They had radio collars. You could hear the dogs getting closer. I told them on no account are they going to “hunt” bear on my 157 acres of woods. If they wanted to go one on one, being equal, then I might give permission. People I know always ask me if they could hunt, gave them permission slips, nice neighbors and they watch over my lands when not there. I will NOT have any dogs on my property treeing bear for :hunters” to kill them.
Years ago there was a Carl Herrick, known as one shot Carl. He shot a bear, set his rifle down and walked to the bear. The Bear rose and mauled him to death. He’s buried in Round Top Cemetery in W. Townshend. I’ve seen a few bears in the woods hunting deer, but that’s not my meat liking. I’ve heard many bear running away from me, crashing thru the woods. I’ve had a few visiting me in my woods place and open field.. Have to be aware all the time when in their environment.
I appreciate the color and direct nature of your comment, Tom. And I do understand why so many people “personify” bears: they are a unique and beautiful beast. But they are still a beast. I wonder what the public sentiment will be after the bear population spikes higher and our kids and grandkids start getting mauled by them? Who will they call to come in and “deal” with the problem? If they trap them for relocation (at a cost of thousands of dollars), where will they relocate them? Not in my backyard, I hope. I will absolutely use my God-given right to self-defense.
I know of bears that were a problem, and native VT’ers got rid of them, Including bee keepers, They will ruin anything. Had a bear rip up some of my things when not there. I’m a middle road believer, been around the barn a few times. I just don’t like dog hunting, I’m a walking hunter when I hunted which was many years ago. Don’t care to navigate logs any more.
Nice post, Tom. But try convincing some human animals that the entire environment doesn’t somehow “belong” to them; good luck with that.
As a person of faith, I know that we reap what we sow, and I’m pretty sure that all which inhabits the earth and sky ultimately belongs to the Creator.
The bears are cool, and I love our sense of wildness, but since everyone wants more people and more houses, there’s going to be issues with things like mandatory composting, backyard chickens, and Vermont’s beloved honey industry. There were some problem bears near here, and it took some education & prodding to get the neighborhood newcomers in line. There will be adjustments on both sides. This ain’t Noo Yawk, folks. Not yet, anyway.
You think bears are beasts? There are typically over 21,000 to over 22,000 men/women & children murdered by other human beings in the USA annually. These tens of thousands of deaths don’t include the tens of thousands of abortions that cause the death of the unborn nor do they of course include rape, savage assaults that maim & disable, or suicides.
A death caused by a bear is very much a rarity – particularly comparatively speaking. And when it does occur, many times it is attributable to a female protecting cubs & not a predatory scenario. But human on human violence & murder? Well, that’s another matter.
It’s a million abortions. A million. Just so you know. Like, it takes five sets of 20,000 times ten just to get there. I don’t know who’s responsible for that, but well, yeah. Not the bears. Maybe we really are safer with the bears after all.
I know who’s responsible! As do all the national & international organizations who study, research, & amass statistics on this abhorrent act! It’s men who are at the very least FIFTY PERCENT responsible in refusing to utilize birth control when “intimate” with their partner and as per the National Library of Medicine: “Men’s involvement in abortion….can be direct & indirect. Men as partners were particularly influential, controlling resources necessary FOR abortions.
I guess the reality continues: It takes Two to Tango.
You don’t have to sleep with these guys, Kathleen. None of you do.
Same answer to both comments.
View some stock footage of people at pro-“choice” rallies, otherwise known as pro-abortion marches…..looky at all the men, young men particularly marching arm to arm with their sisters in protecting their important “right” to have abortions……
How convenient, how united they both are……males love their own newfound “choices” & “reproductive freedom” to engage in sex with responsibility, sex without commitment, and sex without love and do not. want. to. lose. it!
Do we really have more bears, or have more ” flatlanders ” moved here to avoid their city lifestyle…………………. Welcome to Vermont, now go home !!
And in return, the children & grandchildren who have left VT for one of the 49 other states of the “union” wherein freedom of movement within the nation is guaranteed by the coveted Constitution that “conservatives” so claim to adore – must get out of the states they in turn relocated to. What’s fair is fair, correct?
Let’s find out identities of former VT’ers, forcibly extricate them from where they reside now, and get them all back, as their exodus has been ongoing for far too long.
Get OUT!
Awesome!!!!
S.Lowry: And neither do you need to sleep around with others either. God never created “double standards” for morality – males like you did. You would know this if you ever picked up a copy of the good book. Jesus demanded morality from both of His genders in all matters of sexuality time & time & time again within the scriptures.
BTW, what leads you to make assertions against me as though you have had access to confidential medical records to make accusations such that you have made on a public forum?
Despite the reality that you don’t possess the courage to disclose your own name or even leave a virtual “reply” button intact as I do, your identity can easily be revealed by authorities should I believe a breach has occurred in terms of private documents.
Now, where did such an accusation emanate from again?
It was rhetorical, you absolute spoon.
Sure it was, you absolute wuss.
The really strange thing is the implicit tell, but rest assured, I’m not aware of any documents, private or otherwise, concerning you in any way. Your secrets, whatever they may be, are certainly safe from me.
In my humble opinion, some factors that have been highly mentioned in many articles, and cross referencing:
1) Planned Parenthood originally just provided protection devices and information, no abortion
2) Liberals have taken over and now promote abortions and most offices are located in Black Communities.
3) They have been reported to sell human parts after aborting, just like China, if you want a human part from China they will kill a prisoner and harvest the organ to provide.
4) They don’t promote conception protection means.
5) At one time several abortion clinic doctors were assassinated and put fear into the providers, but that seems to have completely changed.
6) One of my main thoughts is, does the male have any input whether or not to have the pregnancy aborted? The guy may want his kid, but without any discussion by the female, the procedure is carried out.
7) I feel if I were in that position per #6, I would want the baby and care for it, including all prebirth expenses. It’s a human duty.
8) An alternative to abortion, which is a final elimination of a human is adoption. And perhaps in the later years the “parents” would try to reconnect and be glad. It’s happened in many cases
9) The current birth rate is down
10) The cost to raise a youngster today to age 18 is in the neighborhood of $300K and includes many undetermined health (if the youngster doesn’t have a serious mental problem [autism, early threatening diseases, etc]. It is noted that cancer in the young is on a drastic increase—why?
11) Recent VDC by J. Klar, the SC of VT allowed the government to have control over your children, a frustrating problem for parents, obey or move out of state. Vermont Communism. https://mail.yahoo.com/d/folders/1/messages/AHAqZWZbjVU6ZsTxFAU_wJT3fzM
12) Bottom line, seek alternatives before making a fatal decision.
13) In my reasoning, life starts in the womb. Once the fetus shows movement, that’s the beginning of life, not after birth (per VT politicians). Life continues until the soul leaves the body. I saw my fathers soul depart his body while holding his hand, noticeable lemon-yellow fluctuating patters on his forehead for about 10 seconds.
14) That’s my belief, prove me wrong. It’s not an easy subject.