M By Robert Rehder
www.wrightsvillebeachmagazine.com 31
WBM
ANY of us grew up with friendly
bear characters like Winnie the Pooh,
Smokey the Bear, and the adorable
Paddington. Those gentle, fun-loving
fictional pals live in a special place and
are great to have around, but of course,
they are not real. In eastern North
Carolina, no longer is there a secret
world where friendly bears live. Real bears roam now — big ones
— and they are close to home and can be dangerous. We like seeing
friendly bears in books and movies but seeing them in our neighbor-hoods
is quite a different story.
Most of us are aware that through development and urbanization,
we are pushing bears and many other wild animals into increasingly
smaller territory. We don’t want to see these animals become extinct,
and so most of us are willing to help in some way — as long as they
don’t visit our front yard.
“I’ve seen numerous bears in New Hanover, Pender, and Bruns-wick
counties,” said Kit Taylor who has hunted, photographed,
and observed black bears for the past 50 years. “Bears are primarily
nocturnal, so it’s hard to convince people that there are so many bears
living close to our neighborhoods — especially those communities
that border dense forest areas. They’re out there, and the numbers
grow each year.”
It wasn’t always like that. In the mid-1960s, there were fewer than
1,000 black bears in North Carolina. They were found only in the
most remote areas where there was little human footprint. Then,
in the 1970s, the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commis-sion
began a remarkably successful bear management program
that included the establishment of sanctuaries encompassing over
500,000 secluded acres. Since then, the population has grown to
more than 25,000 animals statewide. Adaptable and resilient, most
live in what is arguably the best habitat in America — the coastal
plain of North Carolina.
TOM HARRISON
R E T U R N O F T H E Black
Bear
As North Carolina’s ursine population increases, so do interactions with humans