{"id":760870,"date":"2026-07-13T18:46:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-13T18:46:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/760870\/"},"modified":"2026-07-13T18:46:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T18:46:08","slug":"surge-in-black-bears-with-mange-raises-concerns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/760870\/","title":{"rendered":"Surge In Black Bears With Mange Raises Concerns"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsls.com\/news\/local\/2026\/07\/10\/black-bear-mange-sightings-surge-in-southwest-virginia\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">WSLS<\/a> reports getting numerous tips from residents who have spotted bears in poor condition. The mange issue seems to be the most severe in Roanoke, Franklin and Montgomery counties. <\/p>\n<p>The Virginia Department of Wildlife has issued a <a href=\"https:\/\/dwr.virginia.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/media\/Black-Bear-Mange-Brochure.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">fact sheet<\/a> about bears and mange, explaining that mange is a highly contagious skin disease caused by a mite that burrows under the skin. It causes intense itching, thickened skin and hair loss. Severe infections can leave animals depressed, emaciated and unaware of their surroundings. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WSLS reports getting numerous tips from residents who have spotted bears in poor condition. The mange issue seems&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":760871,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[79,201],"class_list":["post-760870","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\/760870","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=760870"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/760870\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/760871"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=760870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=760870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=760870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}