CLEVELAND, Ohio \u2013 A female black bear captured in Ashtabula County earlier this month has been outfitted with a GPS collar so that researchers can learn more about its behavior.<\/p>\n
Black bears, which disappeared from the Ohio in the mid-1800s, have been making a comeback in recent decades, with most sightings in northeast and southeast parts of the state, according to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources Division of Wildlife.<\/p>\n
The bears were driven away long ago by habitat loss and unregulated hunting, Division of Wildlife spokesman Will Babb said.<\/p>\n
The female bear, which was captured June 3 on private property, weighed nearly 200 pounds and was estimated to be five to 10 years old. <\/p>\n
A male bear was collared in Northeast Ohio in 2024.<\/p>\n
Biologists with the Division of Wildlife are working with the Gantchoff Lab University of Dayton to learn more about the recolonization of black bears in Ohio. They hope to collar 10 to 20 resident black bears in the coming years.<\/p>\n
The GPS collars will transmit location, allowing researchers to gather data about the bears\u2019 range, survival rates and reproductive habits, according to the state.<\/p>\n
The collars on the bears are expected to fall off after about 18 months, according to the state. <\/p>\n
Most of the bears seen in Ohio are believed to be males that have entered the state from Pennsylvania and West Virginia looking for a mate, Babb said.<\/p>\n
\u201cJune and July is primarily when they\u2019re going to be breeding,\u201d he said, and after they mate, the males will keep wandering in search of food and another female. Females with cubs have been confirmed to be living in Northeast Ohio.<\/p>\n
The bear is a state-endangered species and it\u2019s illegal to hunt them, Babb said. It\u2019s rare for someone to spot a black bear in Ohio, he said, but if they do, they should keep their distance.<\/p>\n
Black bears normally don\u2019t pose a threat to humans unless threatened or they have wandered into developed areas where they search for food and can cause property damage.<\/p>\n
\u201cBears are opportunistic,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CLEVELAND, Ohio \u2013 A female black bear captured in Ashtabula County earlier this month has been outfitted with…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1460,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[159,67,132,68,837],"class_list":{"0":"post-1459","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-science","9":"tag-united-states","10":"tag-unitedstates","11":"tag-us","12":"tag-wildlife"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1459"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1459\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}