Bears are attracted to anything that smells; it doesn’t even need to smell good. Garbage, compost piles, dirty diapers, pizza boxes, empty beverage cans...to a hungry black bear, it all smells like something good to eat. Bears are curious and always exploring. If a bear follows its nose to a buffet of easy-to-get-at foods, liquids, pet foods or garbage, it learns that where there are people, there is food. Bears ...

Every day an estimated 6,000 acres of open space are converted to other uses, according to the US Forest Service. That's more than 2 million acres a year of forests, grasslands and wetlands that are now growing homes, communities, businesses ...

If you think bears have been in the news more than usual lately, you're right. Early summer usually brings a bumper crop of news stories about bears appearing in places they're not typically seen, from backyards and suburban streets to ...

More than 70 million people – one in four households – use bird feeders to attract birds. People buy more than four billion pounds of birdseed every year, according to a 2021 analysis from the Wild Bird-Feeding Institute. At about ...

Some people believe that bears are not true hibernators. Squirrels, bats, rodents, marmots and other true hibernators enter a state close to suspended animation where body temperatures fall close to freezing and metabolisms slow almost to a halt. A bear's ...

When you think about a bear den, what comes to mind? A hollow tree? A cozy cave? How about a pile of abandoned tires? Or under your porch? Bears can den up in all those places and many more. Bears ...

February at a Glance: Pregnant female black bears give birth. Cubs begin to grow. Bears snug in their dens live off fat reserves, recycle waste and by-products into useful amino acids and heal many injuries. Other bears don’t hibernate at ...