ZANESVILLE, Ohio \u2013 The Ohio Department of Natural Resources announced an increase in black bear sightings being reported across the state.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Dillon State Park Naturalist Michael Durst says Eastern Ohio is heavily forested and bear sightings are nothing new but they are becoming more common.<\/p>\n
\u201c2025 had the most amount of bear sightings recorded since they started doing that in 1993,\u201d Durst said. \u201cSo we\u2019ve definitely been seeing more, more sightings both confirmed and unconfirmed. We\u2019re probably looking at larger growing populations in Pennsylvania and West Virginia and they\u2019re slowly starting to move this way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Durst says sightings increase this time of year as young males can travel more than 200 miles looking for new territory to settle into.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAs far as the sightings themselves, they come from a variety of sources,\u201d Durst said. \u201cTrail cams have certainly seen an uptick in popularity and we\u2019ve got a lot more variety in wildlife viewing opportunities through what\u2019s been showing up on trail cams. Certainly there are some people who\u2019s spotting live bears too. Taking photos, videos when they can. Damage that has happened from bears, you know signs of them. They will certainly get into\u2026 you know, any available food sources that are there, unsecured trash, bird feeders, pet food, dirty grills, all of that are fine pickings for bears. Even gardens and things like that. They\u2019re highly opportunistic omnivores.\u201d<\/p>\n
Durst says bears are not usually confrontational but if you encounter a bear, maintain plenty of distance and don\u2019t turn your back and run because it might encourage it to chase. He added that bears are usually on the move and that sightings can be a majestic and amazing experience. But if you do have problems with bears, you can call 1-800-WILDLIFE.<\/p>\n
2023: 260 sightings in 49 counties
\n2024: 370 sightings in 55 counties
\n2025: 537 sightings in 69 counties<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ZANESVILLE, Ohio \u2013 The Ohio Department of Natural Resources announced an increase in black bear sightings being reported…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":730803,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[79,201],"class_list":["post-730802","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/730802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=730802"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/730802\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/730803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=730802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=730802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=730802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}