Black bears on Bainbridge Island have been entering residents’ chicken coops and yards for several months, according to reports called in to the state’s Department of Fish and Wildlife, though trapping the animals has been unsuccessful so far.
There have been 18 separate calls from the island from June through late September, according to a statement provided by WDFW Coastal Region Wildlife Conflict Specialist Cole Janowski. He wrote that many complaints have to do with bears breaking into chicken cops, though some reports are simply sightings without any conflict behavior.
Bainbridge residents have been talking about the bears in social media threads, offering advice on how to protect a chicken coop or how to store trash in areas where bears have been seen, and many pleading against an outcome where the bears would be put down, which WDFW has said is a possiblity…