Lower population of black bears does not mean less encounters, VT Fish and Wild Life says [Video]

Vermont Fish and Wild life says the recorded population of black bears in the state was around 6,300 to 7,600 in 2023. The dataset was released on Monday. However, those numbers are at a slight decrease compared to the roughly 7,000-8,500 estimate in 2022. The agency says the population was at a five-year high two years ago.However, Fish and Wildlife’s Black Bear Project expert Jaclyn Comeau says human encounters with the animals do not exactly correspond with population. She says there have been at least 1,457 reports of human-bear incidents this year. “It’s a kind of a complicated, nuanced relationship, and it’s very dynamic as well,” Comeau said. “So there’s a lot of factors at play. The number of bears definitely influences the number of reports we get every year, but the number of people in Vermont also influence that, wild food availability for bears and habitat quality also influence …