Connecticut Bear Sightings on the Rise: Where and Why?

(Editor's Note: We first ran this story last week but it was one of our most read stories of the year and here it is again in case you missed it.)

By CHRIS DEHNEL (Patch Staff)

There’s a new Jungle Book movie out there, which means another visit from Baloo the bear, this time through the voice of Bill Murray.

ESPN went to Chicago for the NFL draft this week, so we saw a lot of Bears jerseys.

Somewhere in cable TV land, there were re-runs of Yogi Bear playing this week.

That’s about it if you live in Connecticut, right? Movies and TV.

Not necessarily, according to a spokesman for the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection.

Wait? Real bears? Here?

"Yes," said DEEP Communications Director Dennis Schain. "You just never know when you’re going to see a bear in Connecticut, but you can definitely see one."

Schain said they are all black bears and about 700 of them live in Connecticut.

There have been more than 4,000 bear sightings in the state over the past year, according to statistics released by the DEEP. Fifteen communities in the state have more than 100 sightings in the past year. (See below for a town-by-town look at sightings in Connecticut over the past year.)

"It’s funny because when you think of Connecticut, you think of some pretty densely populated areas," Schain said. "Say we are in Bridgeport, but if we travel a few miles up the road, we can be in some pretty thick woods. The same goes for a lot of places in the state. Bears can encounter people here. It’s the unique makeup of Connecticut."

That explains why a town like Avon could top all bear sightings in the state over the past year with 439 and its neighbors Burlington (No. 2 at 315), Farmington (No. 3 at 284), Simsbury (No. 4 at 218) and Canton (No. 6 at 149) are up there, too.

Torrington made the top six at No. 5 with 171 sightings.

Farmington Animal Control Officer Charlene Rogers said it’s easy for bears to get to the people because they can use routes like rights of way along stretches of power lines as highways to get to the human population.

They can sometimes take real roads. Vernon Police spokesman Lt. William Meier said he still marvels at the bear who wandered out of the woods and was running down state Route 30 in 2014.

Then, there is Avon.

Terri Wilson, the president of the Avon Historical Society, lives in the Mountain View area of town. She said there are more bear sightings at the corner of routes 10 and 44 than residents can keep track of.

That’s near the curve and the hill and the light that make one of the trickiest intersections in town.

"We will see them at the post office," Wilson said. "When we talk about routes, we are talking the rails to trails, the golf course, traveling along the river. Those are the routes the Native Americans used, so it is natural for wildlife to use them, too."

Explained Rogers, "They just want to get to the food."

"And they have a lot of food sources, especially trash cans and barbecue grills," Schain said.

Rogers said she constantly urges residents to secure their trash lids. Of course on trash day when the bins are rolled to the sidewalk, it is prime time for bears to have access to the trash and any leftovers that may have been thrown away, she said.

She also urges residents to keep the drip pans clean in the outdoor grill.

"Bears love the drip pans," Rogers said.

So they will come right to the back porch?

"Yes. Bears have paws like moccasins and they can quietly walk right up to a house, get the drip pans and lick all the good stuff out of them," Rogers said. "We tell people to keep them clean."

Bears also like to get into bird feeders, she said.

That is not the most precarious position bears can find themselves in when they wander into neighborhoods.

"That is when a bear is treed by a dog," Rogers said.

She said bears can wander into a yard, the family dog goes nuts and chases a surprised bear up a tree. Then, it becomes a waiting game.

"Once we get the dog out of there, we do not want to chase the bear out of the tree because the bear could be injured,” Rogers said. "And we do not really want to shoot the bear with a tranquilizer. But the longer it takes, the more neighbors come out to watch. It becomes quite a show."

Eventually, she said, the bear will climb down and head back to the woods.

Wilson said that, remarkably, she has never seen a bear hit by a car at that busy intersection in Avon. That is not always the case when bears wander along a major roadway. That was the case in Southington last week, when a bear was hit along a stretch of Interstate-84.

State police spokeswoman Trooper First Class Kelly Grant said when that happens law enforcement authorities will carefully move the bear and then call the DEEP.

The same goes for a live sighting.

“The best thing to do is keep your distance - enjoy the bear safely,” Schain said. “If you do see one, call the local animal control or the DEEP directly.”

In the past year, the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection says there have been 4,674 bear sightings in Connecticut. For a breakdown from most to least sightings see below:

1. Avon, 439
2. Burlington, 315
3. Farmington, 284
4. Simsbury, 218
5. Torrington, 171
6. Canton, 149
7. Southbury, 141
8. Winchester, 141
9. West Hartford, 136
10. Windsor, 131
11. New Milford, 119
12. Granby, 114
13. Woodbury, 113
14. Newtown, 106
15. Bloomfield, 103
16. Thomaston, 93
17. Barkhamsted, 90
18. Oxford, 83
19. Middlebury, 76
20. Litchfield, 73
21. Bristol, 72
22. Suffield, 65
23. Watertown, 61
24. New Hartford, 60
25. Harwington, 56
26. Redding, 55
27. Southington, 53
28. East Granby, 43
29. Hartland, 41
30. Roxbury, 39
31. Monroe, 37
32. Bethlehem, 36
33. Stafford, 36
34. Wilton, 35
35. Plymouth, 35
36. Plainview, 33
37. Sharon, 32
38. Goshen, 30
39. Warren, 29
40. Danbury, 28
41. Kent, 28
42. New Britain, 27
43. Windsor Locks, 23
44. New Fairfield, 23
45. Brookfield, 22
46. Cornwall, 22
47. Washington, 22
48. Norfolk, 20
49. Sherman, 19
50. Easton, 19
51. Ridgefield, 18
52. Wolcott, 17
53. Bridgewater, 17
54. Canaan, 16
55. Morris, 16
56. Salisbury, 16
57. Weston, 16
58. Waterbury, 14
59. Chester, 14
60. Colebrook, 13
61. Enfield, 10
62. Willington, 10
63. Ashford, 9
64. Berlin, 9
65. Bethany, 9
66. Cheshire, 9
67. New Canaan, 9
68. Stratford, 9
69. Woodstock
70. Essex, 8
71. Naugatuck, 8
72. North Stonington, 8
73. Deep River, 7
74. Greenwich, 7
75. Haddam, 7
76. Hartford, 7
77. Somers, 7
78. Tolland, 7
79. Ellington, 6
80. Fairfield, 6
81. South Windsor, 6
82. Plainfield, 5
83. Seymour, 5
84. Bethel, 4
85. Groton, 4
86. Hamden, 4
87. Ledyard, 4
88. Madison, 4
89. North Canaan, 4
90. Trumbull, 4
91. Union, 4
92. Voluntown, 4
93. Windham, 4
94. Beacon Falls, 3
95. Killingworth, 3
96. Lebanon, 3
97. Middletown, 3
98. Sterling, 3
99. Wallingford, 3
100. Westport, 3
101. Woodbridge, 3
102. Branford, 2
103. Colchester, 2
104. Columbia, 2
105. Durham, 2
106. East Haven, 2
107. Glastonbury, 2
108. Griswold, 2
109. Manchester, 2
110. Meriden, 2
111. North Haven, 2
112. Norwalk, 2
113. Portland, 2
114. Preston, 2
115. Rocky Hill, 2
116. Stamford, 2
117. Thompson, 2
118. Vernon, 2
119. Bozrah, 1
120. Brooklyn, 1
121. Chaplin, 1
122. Derby, 1
123. East Haddam, 1
124. East Hampton, 1
125. East Hartford, 1
126. East Windsor, 1
127. Franklin, 1
128. Guilford, 1
129. Hebron, 1
130. Mansfield, 1
131. Marlborough, 1
132. Milford, 1
133. North Haven, 1
134. North Branford, 1
135. Old Saybrook, 1
136. Prospect, 1
137. Putnam, 1
138. Salem, 1
139. Wethersfield, 1

Photo Credits: Paul Fusco/CT DEEP-Wildlife