As black bears continue to branch out into more densely human-populated areas of Michigan, the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is urging residents to practice coexistence rather than confrontation, according to ClickOnDetroit. With approximately 2,000 of Michigan’s estimated 12,000 black bears calling the Lower Peninsula home, sightings in areas such as Traverse City and Grand Rapids are becoming more commonplace, pushing the DNR to remind locals that “bears live here too.”
The agency has been working to manage an ongoing uptick in bear interactions, which, as per CBS News report, has led to an average of 285 bear complaints per year; these numbers saw a slight increase to 303 in 2024, highlighting the growing necessity for effective wildlife-human cohabitation strategies and education on discouraging nuisance behavior from the bears. The DNR advises against feeding bears and reiterates the effectiveness of removing attractants such as bird feeders and unsecured garbage which Stephen Griffith, a DNR biologist, emphasized bears possess “a very, very good memory” for locating.
Those who encounter a bear on their property are encouraged to utilize noise as a deterrent—clanging pots, horns, or just shouting should usually do the trick—but only in cases where the bear becomes persistent despite efforts to remove food sources, communities are now instructed to secure their trash appropriately and to avoid confrontations by not getting too close to the wildlife. Homeowners experiencing frequent visits from these furry foragers might need some patience though; ClickOnDetroit notes a bear could take as long as two weeks to stop visiting a location once a consistent food source is removed…