Black bears are native to Alabama. When the state joined the Union in 1819, they could be found in every corner of the Yellowhammer state. “Their demise occurred more than a century ago due to over harvesting and habitat manipulation,” Hannah Leeper, a bear researcher at Auburn University told us. As a result, the state hosts the smallest and most fragmented black bear populations in North America.
In 2006, the plight of the Mobile black bears was amplified by Escambia County students, who campaigned to have the bears designated our state mammal. On April 12th of that year, Governor Bob Riley signed a law making the black bear our official state mammal.
That act elevated the bear’s significance.
In the 2010s a second population of bears was discovered in DeKalb and Cherokee counties in Northeast Alabama. This is a game-changer. These bears are recolonizing from the north Georgia bear population. Early research studies of these bears are encouraging. The mothers are producing larger-than-usual litters and the cubs are healthy, like our four cubs.
In 2014, the state of Alabama secured federal funding that focuses on species at risk. ‘State Wildlife’ grants will fund black bear research in partnership with Auburn University until 2024 and hopefully beyond.
“We are just learning how black bears behave in Alabama,” stated Traci Woods, Habitat and Species Conservation Coordinator with the Department of Conservation. “Why is their population growing or not growing? What is contributing to their survival or mortality? We are just now getting good population estimates and information on how they are moving.”
Alabama’s black bears go by two nicknames. Berry bears or honey bears. And yes, they are kin to the most famous bear of them all—Winnie the Pooh.
When Beth Sewell, an educator at the JSU Field School asks students to describe the size of our bears, they have an image of big 600 to 1000 pound menacing grizzly or brown bear from out West. She has to assure them our black bears are much smaller, with a kinder temperament.
For example, female black bears in Alabama weigh 125-135 pounds. Males are about twice that, the size of an Auburn University linebacker.
They are omnivores. Their diet? Pretty much anything a racoon would eat—insects, roots, berries, acorns and other nuts, mushrooms, grasses and other plant materials, as well as small mammals such as mice and ground squirrels, fish, crayfish, and of course rubbish left by humans in trash cans and campsites. Vegetation normally makes up over 80 percent of their diet.
North Alabama bears now have a viable population.
Bears generally avoid humans.
Virtually all the dens located in south Alabama were ‘nests,’ very similar to the nests that birds build.
North Alabama bears mostly utilize wind rows and rock outcrops.
North Alabama population is estimated at 35-50. North Alabama population is growing. These bears have a good genetic influence, have quality denning habitat and larger tracts of unfragmented land with suitable habitat. The northern population could triple within the next 5 years.
The state expects Birmingham will see more sightings of male bears roaming in the summer months, not necessarily establishing a population. Be mindful. Male bears go on walkabouts that may extend a hundred miles from dens in North Alabama.
The people of Birmingham are going to have to adapt to that and live with it 20 years down the road.
Are we going to see moms and cubs? Very unlikely. Hannah Leeper’s research indicates the bears in the Northeast are moving very slowly southward. She does not expect the bears to take up permanent residence anywhere near Birmingham because of the poor habitat—not enough unbroken forests and people around.
JSU’s Sewell concluded:
‘Bears are the state mammal for a reason. They were here first. The fact that they are naturally returning is almost a miracle. Welcome the bears—they should be revered as a sacred species. They are beautiful.”
SOURCE: BHAMNOW.COM
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