The University of Maine has good reason to call its sports teams the Maine Black Bears. Maine has one of the highest populations of black bears of any state south of Alaska. There is no science-based research conducted on the population, but depending on the source, it may exceed 40,000 animals.
The black bear is one of the most controversial animals in Maine because of the way it is unscientifically managed by the Maine Dept. of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife (MDIFW) and the politics that drive its management. The MDIFW does not even have to consider science in its fish and wildlife management.
Black bears live just about anywhere in Maine. Recently, their population and range have greatly increased. Despite these facts, nuisance complaints are rare, and bears generally avoid humans. Black bear management in Maine is extremely controversial because of the methods allowed to kill bears. Deer hunters kill approximately 100 bears. Thousands more are killed by trapping, being run down by dogs, and baiting.
Recently, there have been two referenda to end bear baiting in Maine. Both were unsuccessful. The word “baiting” is actually a misnomer. In fact, Maine’s bears are fed millions of pounds of food at thousands of “bait” sites for several weeks prior to hunting season. This feeding occurs mostly in northern Maine and is controversial for two reasons. First, many people consider it unsportsmanlike to shoot a bear that has been trained to come to a food source. Second, while MDIFW claims that “baiting” bears is needed to control their populations, it may actually be increasing those populations by improving adult survival and increasing the number, size, and survival of cubs.
In Maine, adult females breed during the warm weather months, primarily in June and July, beginning at 3 to 5 years of age. Males reach sexual maturity about a year later than females. Bears enter their winter dens in late fall, and the females give birth in January. Bears do not actually hibernate. They rest in a state called “torpor,” without eating or drinking for several months. The cubs are born weighing about twelve ounces and reach a weight of 4 to 10 pounds when they leave the den with their mother in the spring.
Reproduction of Maine’s bears appears to have been greatly influenced by artificial feeding by humans prior to and during the bear hunting season. During the late summer months and into fall, when they can be hunted and trapped, bears experience hyperphagia, which is the scientific term for extreme, insatiable hunger. The fat they put on helps them survive the winter. It also drives cub production and survival. A fatter bear produces more and larger cubs. Prior to the advent of widespread baiting, i.e., feeding, bears relied heavily on natural foods, primarily beechnuts, to help them gain weight prior to winter. Cub production fluctuated widely, with most cubs produced after years of higher beechnut production, which typically occurred every other year. Since the decline of beechnuts due to disease and the dumping of millions of pounds of food in the woods for the purpose of hunting bears, cub production and survival have increased and evened out from year to year. Of course, the MDIFW will not attribute these changes to feeding.
In the spring, bears emerge from their dens. At this time, the adult bears are very hungry after not having eaten for four to six months. Bears are omnivores, meaning they eat both plants and animals. In fact, grass is a critical food source, especially in the spring and summer, and plant matter can constitute 75% or more of their total diet. They will also eat birdseed in the spring, so it is wise to remove bird feeders before they emerge from their dens.
Cubs are generally weaned at 6-8 months of age, although during this time they will learn from their mother how and what to forage. The cubs move into the den with their mother in late fall and emerge with her in spring. These bears, which are now called yearlings, remain with the mother until she comes into estrus in late spring/early summer. Thereafter, they are on their own and can travel widely. Eventually they will establish home ranges that may average about fifteen square miles, depending largely on bear density and food availability.
Approximately one-third of cubs die, often due to motor vehicles or starvation. Those that survive to adulthood may live as long as thirty years, and adult males continue to grow and fatten, with some reaching or exceeding six hundred pounds. In Maine, humans cause most adult mortality through hunting.
Humans typically have nothing to fear from bears. Most bears flee at the sight or smell of humans. They can become a problem, however, when they lose their fear of humans. Such behaviour typically occurs when they are fed or when they become used to eating from trash cans and dumpsters. Relocating these human-conditioned bears to more remote areas is often unsuccessful because their homing ability enables them to return from hundreds of miles away. As the saying goes, “A fed bear is a dead bear.”
The bear feeding situation in Maine is interesting because we have a state agency that promotes feeding bears by hunters and guides for the purpose of killing them yet encourages people to never feed animals and to remove any possible food, like trash and bird feeders, from outdoors. Your chances of seeing a bear in Maine are remote, but trail cameras readily capture them. They are incredibly intelligent and usually leave long before you see them. Never leave out food while you are camping to try to attract bears to your campsite or camp. If you do see a bear, it will most likely be from a motor vehicle while it is running across a road. Consider yourself lucky, because although they number in the tens of thousands, even most Mainers have seen few, if any, bears in their lifetime.
