Joann Rex’s 43 years of peaceful coexistence with the region’s 3,000 bears came to a sudden end on Nov. 12 when she and her husband awoke at 2:30 a.m. to a ruckus in the garage of her Longyear Road home in Shokan. The culprit: A black bear that demolished a storm window and casement window and escaped with a bag of birdseed. Three days later, her neighbor, Sue Taylor, saw what she believed was the same bear forcing its way into her mudroom.
“The bears come and go,” said Rex, who has since moved her remaining birdseed to a more secure part of her home. “We don’t usually have a problem with them.”
For Taylor, it wasn’t her first ursine home invasion. Last winter, a bear twice broke into a room when she had stored onions and canned dog food, tearing it all apart and crushing the cans. This month, she managed to scare away the animal by shouting and banging on a door.
“It was a fluke that I saw him,” she said. “He was halfway in and he was big.”
While human-bear interactions in the Catskills aren’t especially unusual, the two Shokan intrusions this month gave some experts pause because bears typically hibernate up to five months a year, starting in early November. They’ll sometimes venture out in search of food during winter warm spells or the end of a summer season if food is scarce.
“These types of incidents are less common this time of year,” said Selinda Brandon, a wildlife biologist at the Department of Environmental Conservation. “There are more reports during the summer months.”
The DEC warns against feeding bears and recommends storing food in secure areas. Black Bears, which can weigh upwards of 300 pounds, will avoid humans unless they are drawn to a food source or are defending themselves or their cubs. While they’re omnivores, their main diet consists of plants, nuts, and insects such as ants.
Spikes and dips in the number of bears in the area are cyclical and are typically kept in check by hunting season, which runs from September to October in most parts of New York, Brandon said. A hot, dry summer has also prompted more interactions as the animals struggle to find enough food to sustain them through the winter.
A dearth of acorns—another bear favorite—could also explain the Shokan incidents, according to Dave Holden, a DEC-licensed hiking guide who writes a monthly column for The Overlook.
“There is not enough for the bear population to fatten up on for winter, and many of them are now relying on scavenging to do so,” Holden said. “Once they get a taste for people food, they absolutely love it.”
That can pose danger – although the local threat is nowhere near as dire as places such as northern Japan, where attacks by Asiatic black bears have been blamed for more than 50 attacks and four deaths this year.
“The problem is that any time a black bear comes into direct contact with people, there is great danger, because they are wild animals and are literally capable of anything,” Holden said. “If someone approaches them or moves too fast – even in their own home – a bear might consider it a threat and act accordingly.”
Holden said that bears also have good memories when it comes to food sources, making it possible that, in Taylor’s case, the bear broke into her mudroom because it remembered the food that was there last winter. He added that it was unlikely but not impossible that a bear would be able to smell food packaged in air-sealed cans. That strong recall, a trait intended to help the bear survive, has the potential of turning fatal.
“There is a saying that applies to this situation – ‘a fed bear is a dead bear’,“ Holden said. “In situations like this, since the bear most likely will keep returning, the only way to solve it is to kill the bear before it hurts or kills people. So, as usual, it is the bears that suffer most.”
Jim Rich is a senior reporter for The Overlook. You can reach him at jim@theoverlooknews.com.
