What Are Black Bears Up To In June?

On June 12^th, one person suffered non-life-threatening injuries after a bear attack inside a camp in Wabakimi Provincial Park. The bear was gone when police and EMS arrived. Here in the 705, encounters with bears are a real thing. While capturing them on your trail cam may be cool, face to face encounters can be deadly. Mating season runs from about mid-May through July making practicing bear safety extremely important.

Bears reach sexual maturity around age five, or sometimes later in more northern areas of the province. Most female bears breed once every two years. Mothers who had cubs last year will be chasing these now yearlings away so they can breed again. However, males need to grow to fend off other suitors and attract potential mates, and some male bears may be 8 to 10 years old before they mate. Males can have a home range of 150 km² or more, which encompasses the range of several females.

Once bears breed, pregnant black bears do not gestate right away. They go through a process called delayed implantation. The pause button is pressed on the pregnancy and the female bear does not begin to gestate her embryos until she enters the den. Studies have shown that female bears of at least 150 pounds at den entrance in the fall will successfully gestate and give birth to cubs.

At this time of the year, black bear moms with cubs are busy trying to find food and avoid other bears. They are still using mostly fat reserves from last year to make the milk needed to nurse the cubs. Due to the scarcity of food at this time of the year mother bears may not gain weight. However, cubs are growing, playing, and exploring their environment. Cubs usually stay with their mother for 17-18 months before being left to fend for themselves.

As mentioned, food for bears is scarce in the spring. Though black bears will eat carrion, insects, fish, deer fawns and moose calves, the bulk of their diet is plant material. Now that we’re in mid-June, vegetation is far more available, and berries will be available any day.

This is the prime season for bears to feed and gain weight. That makes being bear-wise crucial. Bears have an incredible sense of smell and can sniff out food kilometres away. They also remember food sources and will return to locations where they have found food in the past. Unfortunately, that includes homes and campgrounds. Never feed bears; if it keeps getting food, it can lose its natural fear of humans.

To avoid encounters with bears and other animals, campers need to be extremely careful with food. Never keep snacks in your tent. Store your food in the trunk of your car, in a bear-proof container, or hang well out of reach in between two trees.

Here are some tips to help avoid these unwanted visitors around your home:

fill bird feeders only through the winter months
keep your pets on a leash
store garbage in a bear-resistant container with a tight-fitting lid, secure shed or garage
do not store garbage in plywood boxes, old freezers or vehicles
do not stockpile garbage — take it to an approved waste disposal site regularly
if you have garbage pickup, only put garbage out on garbage day, not the night before
keep meat scraps in the freezer until garbage day
remove grease and food residue from barbecue grills, including the grease trap, after each use
do not use outdoor fridges or freezers, including beverage fridges, as these may attract bears to your property
do not put meat, fish or sweet food (including fruit) in your outdoor composter
pick all ripe fruit off trees, and remove vegetables and fallen fruit from the ground

Please use extreme caution when encountering bears and other wildlife. For information on how to prevent and report encounters with black bears, head to the province’s website.

Call 911 or police if a bear poses an immediate threat to personal safety and exhibits threatening or aggressive behaviour, such as: