Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: We didn't have any of these animals. They were, they were gone from the landscape. And where we're at today, we're living in the best of times.
[00:00:05] Speaker B: We're looking to get out, you know, 160 collars a year.
[00:00:09] Speaker A: You think you've heard it all, but like, I didn't, I didn't know, honestly until just recently when I came to work here that you know how much of a predator black bear is, especially on whitetails.
[00:00:18] Speaker B: No matter the season, you always want to find the food.
[00:00:20] Speaker A: Black bears, all of our great 480 species here in Pennsylvania that we manage, they're all wild animals. We need to let them be wild. Hello and welcome to Call of the Outdoors, the podcast of the Pennsylvania Game Commission. Pretty cool podcast. Today we have our brand new bear biologist, Mr. Brandon Snavely. We're going to talk all things black bears and try to help everybody become a little bit more bear wise this year. Welcome to Call the Outdoors.
For Pennsylvania hunters and conservationists, our roots run deep. The episodes we bring to you on the Pennsylvania Game Commission's podcast, Call of the Outdoors will take a deep dive into exposing the incredible work being done by agency staff and partners, including statewide habitat projects, the science behind wildlife management, and what drives agency decisions. The Pennsylvania Game Commission's mission is twofold. To manage and protect wildlife and their habitats for not only current, but future generations, and to promote hunting and trapping in the Keystone State.
So, Brandon, we've been real excited about getting together today because when, you know, you talk about black bears in Pennsylvania, there's a lot of ears, a lot of people. It's almost the holy grail to a lot of our hunters. And man, thanks for coming over. And we're excited to hear about. So let's talk about you. And you know, you're not new with the agency, but your position where you're at is new and you know, where you came from and how you got to where you're at today.
[00:01:44] Speaker B: Yeah, that's, that's right. And you know, it's great to be back. You know, I grew up in Pennsylvania right by Middle Creek.
Basically got interested in the outdoors at a young age. Hunting, fishing, camping, all those kinds of things.
And from there, that really drove me to where I wanted to go for an undergraduate degree. Knew I wanted to get into biology of some sort. So I went to Paul Smith College. It's a small little school in northern New York.
So I spent four years there. My degree was actually in environmental science and I got minors in GIS and chemistry. So just kind of all over the board, but focused a lot on natural resources and wildlife management when I was there.
And then really from there, my junior year, the summer in between, I got my first job with the Pennsylvania Game Commission.
So it was just a summer term position.
It was up in the Susquehannock State Forest. I was trapping bears and running trail cameras for predators. So that was part of our fawn predation study that. That had occurred back there in 2015, and then went back to Paul Smith, finished my senior year and actually got hired back onto the project that subsequent summer in 2016, and did the same thing that summer and then ended up coming on full time the fall of 2016 as the bear biologist aide.
[00:03:18] Speaker A: You worked with Mark Turnett at the time?
[00:03:19] Speaker B: Yes. Yeah. So I was under Mark Turnett for most of that duration that I worked. So I was in that position from 2016 through the end of 2020 and just doing everything from bear trapping to collaring bears to going into dens to running trail cameras and just. Just that basically everything. Bears.
[00:03:44] Speaker A: Yeah. We've had Mark on before and he was, you know, talked about his past when he, you know, went into a den with grizzly bears, which. That takes a special kind of person. I mean, there's not too many people in this room that would do that.
[00:03:54] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, I haven't done that yet. We'll see if I make contacts out west.
[00:03:59] Speaker A: There you go.
[00:04:00] Speaker B: And something like that.
[00:04:01] Speaker A: You would do that. You wouldn't bother you at all?
[00:04:02] Speaker B: Yeah, I would. I would try it once, but yeah. So then really from there, you know, I. I spent several years with the agency then, and there was a little bit of restructuring going on and there was an opportunity for myself to go get a graduate degree. And this was with the agency, with the Pennsylvania Game Commission. They had partnered with. It was actually South Dakota State at the time, professor there, Robert Lonsinger, who was my advisor. So they had partnered with him on a bear project and essentially they wanted me to transition into this role, which then I ended up doing. And that was in January of 2021.
And kind of in the. In the interim, in this time in between that we knew the project was going to be starting. And before I actually went out to South Dakota State, he got a new position down in Oklahoma State in the. In the Fish and Wildlife Research co op unit down there.
[00:05:01] Speaker A: So you were cowboy?
[00:05:02] Speaker B: Yeah, so I was cowboy. So that's where I ended up going to grad school. So I was there for two and a half years doing my Master's on. It was actually bear work in Pennsylvania here.
And then really from there I went out. Once I finished my. My graduate degree, I went out and worked as a research associate out on. In New Mexico on Vermejo Park Ranch out there doing some cougar and bear work.
[00:05:30] Speaker A: That's a terrible place to work.
[00:05:31] Speaker B: No, it's. It's a beautiful place. You know, it's 550,000 acres of really pristine wilderness. I would say, you know, it's not much in the way of urbanization or anything like that out there.
[00:05:47] Speaker A: I got to spend some time in Vermeil in my past life and obviously in the turkey business. I mean, Vermejo is one of those places that it's, you know, it's definitely one of the most special places to hear a Miriam's turkey gobble. And Romeo is a beautiful place.
[00:06:03] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. So, yeah, I worked with bears and cougars actually out there, and then that was just a brief stint. That was several months, just over the summer there, and essentially came back to Stillwater right by the university there in Oklahoma State.
And really I just did some GIS work for the city there. And that was just more of a little bit of a placeholder job. You know, I was there for six months doing GIS work, and then from there I actually got a position as a private lands biologist, and that was out in New Mexico. Same. My area was the same area that Vermejo Park Ranch was in. So I had the northeast portion of New Mexico where, you know, I dealt with things from, you know, conflict with. With elk and you know, just really just private landowner, you know, programs out there. Yeah.
[00:07:00] Speaker A: Awesome. Well, we're glad to have you. We're glad to have you back.
[00:07:03] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:07:03] Speaker A: And, you know, you got a big program here in pa and we're excited. We're excited. And the other thing, you know, we talked earlier. You are a hunter, and that's right now, which is. Which is cool because it's, you know, if I lived in Oklahoma, New Mexico, I don't know if I could come back to Pennsylvania. But it. But you come back to your roots, and that's awesome, and we're so proud to have you. So we're going to jump right into it. Now. You've been the bear biologist for how long?
[00:07:27] Speaker B: Over three months.
[00:07:28] Speaker A: Three months. You know, we're. You got big plans, and I know that we're going to talk about that. And obviously, this won't be the last time we're on here talking about bears here in Pennsylvania. But, you know, look at, looking at today, you know, there's been a lot of changes in our season in the last few years. And, you know, there's, you know, some issues that we had to work, work with. And if we looked at it today, you know, what would you say the current state of black bears are? Here in Pennsylvania.
[00:07:52] Speaker B: Yeah. So, you know, bears occur, you know, it's probably over three quarters of the state of PA here that, you know, that's. That's their area that they're in, you know, outside of the far western extent and the far southeastern extent, you know, that's. That's where they mostly occur.
And as far as, like, overall population, I would say it's, you know, it's relatively stable. I mean, we've been above, you know, between 14,000 to a little over 20,000 bears really since like the early 2000s. So we've been in that, you know, mid to high teens most of that time. So I would say it's relatively stable, you know, and really it's just looking at kind of going forward, you know, where exactly we do want that number.
[00:08:38] Speaker A: Sure.
[00:08:38] Speaker B: So that's really something that we're going to be figuring out.
[00:08:41] Speaker A: I know when we got on the high side, you know, in our existence here, it's when we saw a lot more human conflicts, you know, and that's, you know, one of the reasons that those, you know, earlier seasons were started and it was with a purpose to get the population to a more stable level. And I mean, that's what your. That's what your job is, is to manage that population and suggestions of where we should be as a state. And, you know, when so many people look at, no matter what the wildlife, what, whether it's whitetails or turkeys or BlackBerry, you're looking at it as a statewide process. It's not just in your favorite little honey hole or the county that you're in. You're looking at it with a statewide brush. And that's hard for myself. I'm sure it's hard sometimes for you, a lot of times for you to actually visualize it because Pennsylvania is a pretty unique place, right?
[00:09:29] Speaker B: Yeah. And we want to minimize the conflicts that occur between bears and humans, but we also want to maximize the amount of time a field hunters can be in the various bear seasons. So it's really just finding that balance that we can kind of get all those things accounted for.
[00:09:50] Speaker A: And when we say this hunters, they're our number one conservation tool when it comes to wildlife, and especially on bears. I Mean, we've proven that we can take that population where we need it. I mean, just by seasons adjustment and you know, any of those things, those metrics that you use. And I say this all the time. When you think about conservation, you know, and you think about at a, not too long ago, really, we didn't have any of these animals. They were, they were going from the landscape. And where we're at today, we're living in the best of times.
[00:10:19] Speaker B: That's right. You know, you know, we just thinking back to like, you know, the 70s or something like that, you know, we had maybe roughly about 5,000 bears back then, you know, so now we're, you know, know now we're in mid to high teens routinely. So, you know, it's, it's a lot more bears that we have right now.
[00:10:35] Speaker A: Sure, yeah, we're, we're lucky, we're very lucky state. But let's talk about research here at the Game Commission. If we have any current research projects or what the future looks like, what things you're going to dive deep, you know, deep dive into because, you know, research in bears, I think we probably lead the country probably in black bear research. You know, even when I look back in my lifetime back, you know, to when Gary Alt was our bear biologist, you know, he would, he would talk about black bears on the square of any town in Pennsylvania because he, you know, it was what he lived every day of his life.
[00:11:06] Speaker B: That's right, yeah. So kind of just starting what we do annually here in PA, you know, we, we tag, you know, between 7 to 800, you know, roughly bears per year. And we use those bears that we tagged and then look for those tags later in the year. And, and with those, those tag returns that we get, we can estimate our population size through doing things like that. So we kind of lead the country in the amount of tags that we put out on bears, which is a great way to, to monitor things.
Now we are, we do have a new project that actually is just starting up this year and it's really assessing like bear survival.
So it's a couple different things and essentially it's looking at the core range that bears are in Pennsylvania and we're going to be collaring males, females, adults and yearlings and basically assessing what their survivals are through hunting season, but then also other times of the year.
So this is really a huge project. We're looking to get out 160 collars a year and on unique individuals every single year. So this is looking at a lot of Unique bears. And just looking at that survival from all those different demographics and also different regional differences.
[00:12:39] Speaker A: Is this a statewide project?
[00:12:40] Speaker B: Yes, this is a statewide project.
So from that we're basically going to look to see from that if we can estimate the population in maybe a more accurate way than just those simple tag returns.
And the one model that is used that's more complex, it needs those survival estimates to really feed into that. So that's really the basis of what, why this project had started and really just seeing what, you know, what. And when bears are harvested and in all those different demographic groups across the state.
[00:13:20] Speaker A: Right. You know, when you, and I'll throw one at you here, you think about bears and you know, on an average, how long does a bear live?
[00:13:28] Speaker B: So when you look at what we have for bears, it's a little bit, a little bit of a dichotomy. So you have male bears and they tended to den later, so females tend to live longer. So we have girls always win. That's right.
So we routinely have females in the high teens. We've even had females in the twenties here in Pennsylvania.
Whereas males, I think they're a lot less likely to get somewhere, you know, in the, into the teens just because they're more likely to get harvested earlier in the year. Yeah.
[00:14:10] Speaker A: Okay, that's great stuff. Because, you know, and I do want to, I'm just picking your brain a little bit from stuff you talk about when you say a bear's core range. Which. Do we have any, I mean, is there any like average of a bear's core range?
[00:14:23] Speaker B: Yeah, so actually part of that was looking what I looked at for my project and this was just up in the, in the Sprouse State Forest. But actually this, this survival project is going to provide us with home range estimates for, you know, all these different, you know, the demographics of bears across the state and seeing how those change as well. But just from my estimates up in the Sprouse State Forest, that was roughly about 250 square kilometers. Now this is in the fall when bears are, you know, they're making moves, you know, as they're, as they're fattening up in the fall.
Now summer, summer ranges are, are much less than something like that. But yeah, that, that was surprising considering these were adult female bears. And generally what's been recorded in the past has been smaller home ranges than, than what we found in, in that most current research. But then again, we were using the most, one of the most up to date home range estimators which has been More has been shown to be more accurate than some of the traditional stuff that's been going on since, you know, the 70s, 80s, something like that.
[00:15:30] Speaker A: There's lots of variables. Food.
[00:15:32] Speaker B: That's right.
[00:15:32] Speaker A: I mean, there's tons of variables, but it's, it's pretty amazing, you know. And here's one thing that, you know, and I want to talk about the life cycle of a bear next because there's lots of things that, you know when you, you think you've heard it all, but like, I did, I didn't know, honestly until just recently when I came to work here that you know, how much of a predator BlackBerry is, especially on whitetails. And let's talk about that.
[00:15:53] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:15:53] Speaker A: And it's just a fact.
[00:15:54] Speaker B: Yeah. So, you know, most of the time, I'd say most, most of the year, you know, bears are. I, I would like to call them like opportunistic omnivores. So, you know, they're, they're going to be eating plant matter, you know, acorns in the fall. But certainly when the opportunity presents itself for, you know, whether it be carrion, whether, whether it be, you know, a whitetail fawn and that, and that was generally within like the first two weeks of, of the fawn's life is when the bears, you know, sniff them out.
[00:16:23] Speaker A: Sure.
[00:16:24] Speaker B: But yeah, I think that looking back to that fawn predation study that, that occurred, you know, bears were the biggest, you know, the biggest predators of fawns in that, in that study.
[00:16:36] Speaker A: Absolutely.
[00:16:36] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:16:37] Speaker A: Yeah. A lot of times we take it, we think that bears just eat, you know, berries and nuts. And you know, if you had to pick one food source, and I know I'm going down rabbit holes, but I think this is good for our folks. If you had to pick one food source in, in the fall of the year when, when hunters are getting out there, that, that a bear craves or desires over another. Would you have a suggestion?
[00:16:56] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, I, I would say. Well, first it would probably depend on what forest type you're in.
[00:17:02] Speaker A: Let's talk with Northwoods.
[00:17:03] Speaker B: I mean, Northwoods. I mean, you'd be looking for things like, you know, cherries, but then also if you move into like mixed oak, you know, obviously those high acorn, you know, those high quantity acorn stands is where to be. Beach nut, beechnut as well. And once we start kind of getting up into like Tioga county up there. But one surprising thing that, that I had seen personally was black gum trees were really hit hard. So that's, you know, it seems to be a craved food source for them in the fall.
[00:17:34] Speaker A: Yeah, some. Someday we'll have to get in the woods with you and get the crew out with some, you know, the cameras and just show us some of that because there's signs that bears leave up there that all of us have walked by. We never. Oh yeah, I've seen the nest in the tree where.
[00:17:47] Speaker B: Yeah, they. Yeah.
[00:17:48] Speaker A: And just stuff like that that like everybody that spent time in the woods have, have walked by some of this sign that black bears leave and we don't know what it is.
[00:17:56] Speaker B: That's right. And you know, some of those areas that I've just seen through our GPS collars that we have out on those bears, you know, they spend up to, you know, about three to four days in some of those areas just climbing the trees and destroying the tops of the trees to get to all the food sources that are up there.
[00:18:12] Speaker A: Sure.
[00:18:13] Speaker B: And you know, you go in and just find all the trees basically, you know, topped that are there.
[00:18:19] Speaker A: So, you know, when you talk about, let's just talk about a year in the life of a bear, you know, breeding season and you know, when they have. A lot of people don't understand how that whole gestation period works and let's, let's just go, you know, for those that do know it, this is a recap. But for somebody that wants to learn more, let's talk about that life cycle, if you will.
[00:18:38] Speaker B: Yeah. So let's start, you know, let's start in the, in the spring, I guess, you know, so bears will come out of their den in, you know, probably in April sometime in there and they'll be exiting their, their winter den location.
[00:18:52] Speaker A: Which is like way under the ground.
[00:18:53] Speaker B: Well, that really depends.
[00:18:55] Speaker A: I'm learning too.
[00:18:57] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, we can get into that just as a little side note.
[00:18:59] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:18:59] Speaker B: Right now. So as far as dens go, most, you know, most people think, oh, like a rock cavity, you know, a little cave, something like that. But you know, here in PA we have a kind of a wide range of, of what we get into. And a lot of them are end up being ground nests. They look like, you know, what you envision a maybe a big bird nest would look like where, you know, all the mountain laurels just kind of woven together or, you know, even just pushed down. And that's, that's all they have to, you know, protect them for the winter and just kind of goes to show how resilient and strong they are that they can just lay out all winter even with Cubs and just be like that.
But we also have other types of dens. Like they'll be in brush piles and also like root wad areas where a tree has fallen over and they'll dig an excavation into those roots that are exposed.
[00:19:55] Speaker A: Every one of us has probably walked by a bear den out there. I feel that way, like, yeah, I feel that way about the biggest bucks of our lifetime and we didn't, weren't paying attention or didn't realize what we're looking at. I feel strong about that.
[00:20:08] Speaker B: Yeah. And you know, just, just for how difficult it is to, for, you know, for us to find dens of, you know, radio collared bears. You know, it's, you know, if you have no idea that a bear is there and it's not making any kind of noise, you, you're just going to walk right by there unless you physically see the hole or see the bear.
[00:20:26] Speaker A: Right? Yeah. Right. All right. Oh yeah. Took you off subject. Let's go back to that springtime life cycle.
[00:20:31] Speaker B: Yeah. So you know, as they'll come out of the den there in April and you know, they'll start, start feeding, you know, on grasses and you know, things like that skunk cabbage in some of the wetter areas.
And then, you know, summertime, then we, you know, mid summer is when we kind of get into the, the breeding season. So right around, we like to say, like kind of right around July 4th weekend that would be like the peak breeding season.
[00:20:57] Speaker A: That's the bear rut.
[00:20:58] Speaker B: That's right, yeah.
[00:20:59] Speaker A: Do they call it that?
[00:21:00] Speaker B: I don't know. I mean we can right now.
But yeah, that's when, when peak breeding happens and you know, sows can, they can breed with multiple, actually multiple males. They don't, you know, they essentially don't breed for life or anything like that. Like maybe some other species would.
And essentially from there those embryos, they don't start. The bears have a thing called delayed implantation. So they won't actually implant into the uterine wall until later and they won't implant into the uterine wall and start growing until later in the year, which causes them to have, they have their cubs in their winter dens. So roughly mid January is when bears will have their offspring in the den.
And part of that is because they basically breed in the summer and they wait until the fall and then start developing their embryos.
[00:22:03] Speaker A: I gotcha. When they hit the den.
[00:22:04] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:22:04] Speaker A: So this is probably a dumb question and I don't can, you know, if they breed with multiple male bears, can they have two different sires.
[00:22:13] Speaker B: Yes, they can, they can have. And sometimes it's very evident just visually you can see that things may be different. Now. I'm not sure if those are, you know, that kind of correlates to different males. But yes, they can have. You know, for each cub, they can have a different boar that is the father of that bear.
[00:22:34] Speaker A: Awesome. How many cubs as a normal.
[00:22:37] Speaker B: Yeah, so typically we see three. Yeah, that's kind of the average for PA which is really higher than most other states.
[00:22:45] Speaker A: Is that because the habitats.
[00:22:46] Speaker B: Yeah, that's, that's the habitat that we got here, that's the food sources that we have here.
But you know, we typically see between 1 to 5.
There's some kind of, there's some unsustain, unsubstantiated claims of, of 6. So potentially 6. We haven't seen it formally documented here in the, in the state. Just.
[00:23:10] Speaker A: That'd be a lot of work.
[00:23:11] Speaker B: That would. Yeah, yep. For sure.
[00:23:13] Speaker A: So, you know, and let's talk about, you know, after.
Let's talk about males, you know, on that life cycle too. You know, obviously, let's talk about the, the breeding season and then how they go into fall a little later.
[00:23:25] Speaker B: Yeah. So I guess we can kind of get maybe to the, after the summer portion of things. Yeah. So they'll breed in the summer, but that in between period in the, in the fall. That's when bears are really looking for food sources and they'll essentially try and find the best soft or hard mast or cornfield or, you know, what, what have you and just try and get. Pack on as much weight as they can prior to, prior to entering their winter den.
[00:23:54] Speaker A: Both sexes. Both.
[00:23:55] Speaker B: Both sexes. Yeah, they're all, they're all doing that. Um, and just from what we've seen, you know, even, even adult females, they'll take large movements out of what their, their typical core home range would be.
And bears can move a long distance in, in a short period of time.
But yeah, as far as, as far as males, you know, they, males home ranges are generally larger than, than females.
So they will be essentially moving through their, through their territory and trying to breed multiple females that are all kind of interspersed in their, their home range there.
[00:24:32] Speaker A: And I'm sure they live by a strict pecking order like any other wild animal too. There's a lot of, a lot of fighting and stuff going on out there.
[00:24:38] Speaker B: That's right. You know, when we catch male bears in the summertime, you know, a lot of times they're, they're a Little beat up from, you know, if maybe they want to fight, maybe they lost a fight, but they still come away with some scars from that.
[00:24:51] Speaker A: Absolutely. And then, you know, gestation period, they have their cubs in the den and when they come out of the den, I mean, this is something too, that a lot of folks don't know. I mean, she doesn't have little ones every year.
[00:25:03] Speaker B: That's right. So, you know, a bear will have, have cubs. Let's just say they have. Have cubs in January of a certain year.
Those cubs will actually stay with her for the next year and a half before she pushes them off. So that next time that she's in a den, that following den season, she actually has them in. And now, now they're kind of classified as a yearling bear. So they're still in that den location with her. And then she will push them off prior to the breeding season of that, that subsequent year.
[00:25:37] Speaker A: Is there any truth to this? And this, this is definitely out there. I hear this quite a bit. Is it true that males will try to get rid of the cubs? Yes, in between year.
[00:25:49] Speaker B: Yeah, so that, I mean, that's been shown that they, they will try that and you know, kind of with hopes.
[00:25:54] Speaker A: Of her coming back into, you know.
[00:25:57] Speaker B: You know, trying to. Yeah, trying to force an estrus cycle.
[00:25:59] Speaker A: Right.
[00:26:00] Speaker B: But to that, that, to that extent, I'm not sure how much, how much that actually occurs.
[00:26:07] Speaker A: So, you know, in the next couple of weeks, and I know you guys have already been in the woods and starting these projects, you know, you'll see, you know, in some of our most popular things that we do is when we get to go out to a bear den and see the cubs. And, you know, a lot of people wonder, you know, what, when we go in and get those cubs and you tag them, you know, what are exactly what you're doing. We kind of talked a lot about a lot of the studies. If you want to talk about some of the things in the past that we might have been going in there and getting the cubs or what might be happening in the future when you see these bear dens.
[00:26:37] Speaker B: Yeah. So as far as, so as far as what kind of happened in the past, we were more concerned about overall reproductive metrics. So we were there for the cubs in that sense, looking at litter sizes, cub weights, all those kind of things.
And right now, when we enter dens that do have cubs, at them, we're looking at essentially overall health of the bears. You know, that kind of comes first and foremost when we're, we're doing any kind of wildlife handling, but then we use, you know, those cubs do get ear tagged and we can essentially use that in that tag return estimate for population size later in that year. So that's kind of what's been done traditionally on bears and now kind of moving forward on this survival project that we have going on.
We're going into dens and with hopes of collaring yearlings, which is a, which is a tall task because a lot of times sows with yearlings tend to just run away on us because they're much more mobile considering they have, you know, fully mobile offspring with them at this point. So they're less likely to stay and more likely to hightail it away from us. So it's a, it's a tall task to get yearlings collared and, and that's essentially looking for their, again for their survival.
[00:28:04] Speaker A: And I know sometimes too, like, we come across a situation where there are orphan cubs. You know, one of the reasons, one of the great things that can happen is we can actually get those orphans in with another mother and she a lot, most of the time accepts those.
[00:28:17] Speaker B: Yes. As far as that, you know, I'd like to say 100% but, you know, nothing's 100% and with wild animals. But when you. Yeah, essentially sows are very adult female bears or sows, you know, they're very good, good mothers and they'll take an orphan or an orphan cub and then raise it as their own. And essentially we just put that bear in with her other cubs and, and she doesn't treat it really any different.
[00:28:47] Speaker A: That's awesome. You know, for folks listening, just imagine, I mean, you know, working with these animals every day, the fascinating things you learn out there and you know, and when, when you see some of that stuff hit, you know, a lot of states, you see bear den visits and for us, like when we have, when we get the opportunity to go along on one and hit social media. Yeah, I mean, it's cool to see a bear cub, but there's a lot of reason behind those, those den visits and the information is vital to, for you to do your job and, and you know, black bears are pretty interesting. And you know, when you think about black bears and what you said, like we have black bears in this state now in places we've never had them, you know, they've really inhabited a lot of the state. You said 75% of the state.
[00:29:26] Speaker B: Yeah. And kind of to that end, they're even starting to move into Ohio a little bit right now. You know, there's actually some research starting up in Ohio looking at bear recolonization and that. I'm sure that some of our bears in this state moving westward into like.
[00:29:45] Speaker A: Eastern Ohio and New York, same thing. You know, their bear population's growing in.
[00:29:49] Speaker B: New Jersey and, and just to New York's end. A lot of times our bears in the northern portion of the state, they end up if we tag them in the summer trapping and they'll end up getting harvested up in New York and kind of vice versa. We'll get some bears coming down from New York as well.
[00:30:09] Speaker A: They don't know the state line.
[00:30:10] Speaker B: That's right, they don't exactly.
[00:30:12] Speaker A: So obviously when there is bear human conflict in around it, it makes the news and that's right. We've had some cases this year and, and you know, that one in particular in the northeast. And I really want to you know, kind of end this, this talking about like a program that we have initiated. We're in early steps about bear wise and, and I think it's important to all our, all the residents of the commonwealth to you know, remember these are wild animals and so many times as humans we do things that can put ourselves in, in danger. I mean, for the most part bears want to get away from you. I mean, you know, they're very intimidating.
Even a 80, 100 pound bear is intimidating to me. They're fast and they're out there, they're predators. They're not as far at the top of the food chain that we are, but they're scary and you should give the bears those respects. So if we could talk about, you know, a couple things with bear wise that everybody needs to take away.
[00:31:07] Speaker B: Yeah, I would say, you know, overall, you know, not approaching or feeding bears, you know, that's the big thing is the most issues that we end up seeing are people that are bears that have been fed and they end up causing conflict because then they associate us and just everyone with food. So then essentially they think this is food, I'm going to come and opportunist and yeah, they're opportunistic and if that's an easy meal, the bears will, they'll take that easily.
[00:31:40] Speaker A: I mean if we left work every night and got a cheeseburger at the same place for free, hey, we'd be there every night. I mean that's really, when you think about it, that's exactly right.
It happens all the time. You know, people feed bears and they love to watch them but you're really doing a, that's why that's when you see bears coming on people's porches, walking in through their front door. I mean, like you said, they're a wild animal, they're opportunists, but they, you know, it's an easy meal for them.
[00:32:06] Speaker B: That's right. Yeah, it's. And it's something that we, we can see too, that a bear's whole behavior may change when it gets like that. And you know, just their overall movement patterns, they'll, they'll move to just. They'll essentially act like almost like an accordion and try and hit every hot spot. And then they'll go back and hit every, every hot spot that they've gotten food at in the past and just kind of move around the landscape like that and really not act like a typical. What we think of as like a wild bear. That's right. That's fearful of humans. You know, obviously these bears are, they get a lot more. They're bold and the overall fear of people just goes away. And that's when we could see the major issues happening.
[00:32:49] Speaker A: Right. And you know, talking about garbage and stuff like that too. You gotta make sure it's secure.
[00:32:53] Speaker B: That's right.
[00:32:53] Speaker A: You know, again, they're opportunists and every year, I mean, you just gotta be vigilant out there and be bear wise.
[00:33:00] Speaker B: Yeah, that's right. And you know, just having, having containers that, that lock up, that kind of prevent bears from getting in there, whether that's your, your garbage containers, whether that be dumpsters, things like that, that, you know, that'd be really helpful.
[00:33:12] Speaker A: I mean, look at, look at the major cooler companies out there today that make their coolers bear proof.
[00:33:16] Speaker B: That's right. Yeah.
[00:33:18] Speaker A: It's a great marketing idea, but it's also very true, you know, especially in camping in western states where, you know, like New Mexico, where you have other kinds of bears around as well. I mean, is there grizzlies and where you were out there?
[00:33:29] Speaker B: No, there was no, no, but all black bears and. But our bear. We are a little bit fortunate in that our bears are a little, they're not as bold as the western bear. Western bears, but they could easily become that way through you know, feeding or, you know, anything like that.
[00:33:49] Speaker A: You know, we're here in the first week of March and we're coming to that time where these bears been in the dental. Let's talk about that before we get to this next point. You know, a lot of people think bears go into the den and they sleep all winter and that's the farthest thing from the tree.
[00:34:01] Speaker B: That's. Yeah, that's not, not really true at all. You know, bears one, you know, they'll actively give birth in the den site. So you know, they're, they're awake, they're vigilant. It's just that everything is, you know, depressed in their metabolic functions through the winter in the den. They won't eat, they won't, won't defecate but essentially they will be vigilant. So you know, if something comes to try and you know, take an offspring, they, they are able to defend their den.
And you know, sometimes we see where, you know, typically dogs may try and go up to a den, den site and, and they'll get swatted by a bear. So we see things like that.
[00:34:42] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. And you know, that's one of the things that you think about a lot like a den and one sleeping. But you know, as we, we're coming in this time of year, they're going to start coming out. How much weight roughly does a bear lose in denning? As they're denning, is there, is there weight loss or do they stay the same or.
[00:34:59] Speaker B: So they, they definitely do lose a lot of weight. I'm not sure what that, what that actual number looks like. You know, they, you know, they obviously get fattened up as much as they can through the fall and that, that fat reserve lasts them, you know, for those several months. You know, and we're, when we have pregnant females, you know, some of those, those bears are ending, entering their dens, you know, mid to late October and then they're coming out in April. So you know, you talk about being able, able to survive just off of your fat reserves and not eating or drinking anything for that many months. You know, it's really incredible.
[00:35:32] Speaker A: It is. So, but what they are, is hungry when they come out.
[00:35:35] Speaker B: I'm sure that's right. Yeah, they are hungry so they are looking for a fast meal.
[00:35:40] Speaker A: Right. And that's, you know, that's the next point like on bear wise is bird feeders.
[00:35:44] Speaker B: That's right.
[00:35:44] Speaker A: You know, we've been watching birds all winter long and all of a sudden bears come out and you know, it's one of the biggest calls that we get are like, you know, they just, they just bend our pole that holds our bird feeder. I mean they're going to find those meals.
[00:35:54] Speaker B: Yeah. And they won't really discriminate between traditional bird feeders or hummingbird feeders. You know, they're going to try and take everything down. You Know, so when you see something like that, that's mostly what you want to do is take your feeders down, you know, for a while and, you know, maybe that be like a week and the bear will move on hopefully, and then, you know, not be associating humans with food.
[00:36:16] Speaker A: Same with pet food. If you have pet food outside, it's another one that they're going to get after as well.
[00:36:20] Speaker B: Yeah. And, you know, just kind overall food outside, maybe you have vehicles with food inside or remnants of foods inside and windows down. Bears can get into cars and a car after a bear's been in it is not probably a pleasant thing to go into.
[00:36:40] Speaker A: So the biggest thing is be vigilant out there and think about it and remember that black bears, all of our great 480 species here in Pennsylvania that we manage, they're all wild animals. We need to let them be wild. I think that's the most important thing we can think of in the back of our mind. So I have two more questions. Yeah, one is, so I wanted, I should ask this before, but. So Iowa or excuse me, Oklahoma State and Penn State. You know, when you think about wrestling, Penn State just sent, you know, a bunch of, of, you know, folks now that are at Oklahoma State coaching the Cowboys that came from Penn State. So if those two were wrestling, who would you, who would you be rooting for?
[00:37:18] Speaker B: Oh, I'd be with Oklahoma State.
[00:37:19] Speaker A: Oh, man. Oh, that's a tough one here at the Game Commission. But I'm, I'm actually an Iowa fan, so. Going to get booed for that. The other thing. Well, actually three more questions. So I heard a story that you have to kind of tell us what happened with a rattlesnake and a bear trap. Obviously, Dave Mitchell, our deputy director, I asked him for a little story. He goes, ask him about that rattlesnake. Do you remember that one?
[00:37:41] Speaker B: I'm trying to think. I mean, you keep a rock in.
[00:37:44] Speaker A: The bear trap and.
[00:37:45] Speaker B: Yeah, so we had someone, you know, what ends up happening when we trap bears is some of these areas have rattlesnakes at them and, and you know, when we, we trap bears with, with donuts and they ended up attracting mice, which ends up attracting snakes in these areas. And we have, have had in the past, you know, kind of close calls where, you know, snakes blend in with the, with the environment they're in and, you know, kind of almost had someone get bit from that. Luckily, the snake didn't strike.
[00:38:20] Speaker A: Nice.
[00:38:21] Speaker B: But yeah, and that's, that's up in that, in the Sprouse State Forest area there. And I mean, I've, I've stepped on a snake there and luckily, same thing, you know. No, no actual strike or bite, but, you know, just got lucky on that.
[00:38:33] Speaker A: So you'd rather deal with a black bear, though, than a rattlesnake.
[00:38:35] Speaker B: That's right.
[00:38:35] Speaker A: Yeah, I hear you. And you know, the kind of the last thing. And I think this is a key one. You know, as a hunter yourself, if you had one tip that maybe some folks that are out there bear hunting, no matter what part of the season that it's in, you know, and I encourage people, you know, we have our April meeting where seasons and bags are going to get approved and your recommendations and to pay attention and watch as you know, because you're adjusting these seasons to our populations. You know, I don't think it's going to be the same every year. The way things are going would be my guess, right? Yeah. But, you know, tune into our April meeting. You know, you'll see the, the, the, the finalized seasons and bags for this fall. But it's always encouraging and encourage folks to pay attention in January and April to see what's going to happen the following year. And obviously all those will be printed in the digest. But if you tip to our bear hunters out there, kind of in, in general, not see, you know, would it be something that you could give them without.
[00:39:26] Speaker B: Yeah, I think, I think overall, you know, no matter the season, you always want to find the food. That's. If you find the food source that bears are in, that's. I mean, that's where they're going to be and that's what they're trying to do in the fall.
[00:39:38] Speaker A: Right. And they're going to leave telltale sign for sure. And sometimes we overthink it. And I mean, that's, that's a great tip. I mean, white tip. Anything you're hunting, I mean, they have to eat, they have to drink. You know, when you find those sources, you can put yourself in the right spots.
[00:39:50] Speaker B: Right. And if you, if you just find those areas with, you know, high acorns, you know, just littered on the ground or, you know, beech nuts everywhere, you know, those are the spots to be in because that's, you know, if you're keying into that, the bear's also keying into that.
[00:40:05] Speaker A: And how good is a bear's nose?
[00:40:06] Speaker B: Oh, it's incredible.
[00:40:07] Speaker A: They live by, they live by their nose like a deer. Yeah.
[00:40:09] Speaker B: Yeah, they do.
[00:40:10] Speaker A: Some people don't think that and put that wind in their favor, too. And I think that's an important key, too.
[00:40:14] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. Bears. A bear's smell is better than its vision, so, you know, they really live off of their. There's what they can smell out.
[00:40:24] Speaker A: Yeah. Awesome. Well, Brandon, thank you.
[00:40:26] Speaker B: Oh, yeah.
[00:40:26] Speaker A: And we appreciate it won't be our last time. And we're glad to have you back here at the game Commission heading up our bear program and. And look forward to the next time and keep doing a great job, buddy.
[00:40:36] Speaker B: Thank you.
[00:40:37] Speaker A: Absolutely.
