We have black bears here too. I don't see them by my house too often but they have been seen in the area at times. They are mostly up in the northwoods.
They like dumpsters, trash barrels, and dumps.
That's pretty much a smorgasbord for them. You won't see a bear in all probability. They hide well, hate human interaction, and will run away rather than hurt anyone. They're harmless and have a brilliant sense of smell, so they know you're there unless you're downwind of 'em and spook them.
There is a nature preserve area half a mile down the road with some walking trails and a lot of marshland and they might be some hanging out over there. I know hunters go hunting ducks and deer and other game over there, and when there is a sighting near by it always seems close to the reserve in some direction
Yeah, they like our trash but hate our presence. Black bears are harmless unless you're an idiot and didn't learn about bears before hiking in bear territory. 99% of the time, they'll run away. The 1% of the time, you can easily avoid them by not being a moron.
The last known death of from a bear was a little girl in like 1886.
The bear attacks since then have ALL been hunters who didn't realize the bear wasn't dead and approached it like it was dead. This is why you need to make sure the bear is dead before you get close to it.
In those cases, they just got mauled. We haven't had a death in a long time.
The little girl, all those years ago, probably did something stupid and was probably between a mother bear and her cub.
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