CT Acorn Shortage Making Human Food Sources More Tempting To Bears

CONNECTICUT — The Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection Friday sent out a reminder that bears begin quests for "more food" in the fall and that makes them "very active" for the next few weeks and an acorn shortage may make them a bit nuttier than normal in 2022.

During the fall season, black bears increase their food intake to add fat reserves needed to help them survive winter, DEEP officials said. Connecticut's black bear population, whose population is estimated to be greater than 1,000, can be found in any of the state’s 169 towns. During fall, bears forage for calorie-packed nuts and seeds for up to 20 hours a day, DEEP officials said.

The annual power-eating marathon is called hyperphagia. During hyperphagia, bears need to eat 20,000 calories a day, or 10 times the calories they normally consume, in an effort to put on as much weight and insulating fat as possible before turning in for the winter, according to DEEP officials.

A pound of acorns has about 2,100 calories and a pound of blueberries has 256 calories, so it takes some time each day for bears to find 20,000 calories' worth of nuts and berries, but just one bird feeder full of black oil sunflower seed or one garbage container with leftovers can reward a bear with a day's worth of calories for less than an hour's work, making human-provided foods even more tempting, DEEP officials said.

This year, the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station recently completed the 2022 Oak Mast Surveillance Program, which documented widespread acorn crop failure in Connecticut for the fall 2022 season, following an above-average crop in 2021. Fall acorns are an important food source for black bears. The lack of acorns this year will cause bears to look for other food sources, including human-associated food, fueling "a growing public safety concern" associated with their continuing population expansion, officials said.

Black bears that consume human-associated food like birdseed, trash and pet food on a regular basis become "habituated"and "food-conditioned," DEEP officials said. As the bear population continues to grow, and bears become increasingly food conditioned, "conflicts with humans will continue to increase, and food-conditioned bears pose a greater risk to themselves as well as public safety, and often cause more property damage to houses, cars, pets, and livestock," DEEP officials said.

With two months remaining in the year, the DEEP has already tracked a record number of bears breaking into homes, with 69 incidents this year far surpassing the previous record of 45 in 2020.

"Black bears should never be fed – either intentionally or unintentionally," DEEP Wildlife Division Director Jenny Dickson said. "Bears that are attracted to homes by easily accessible foods lose their fear of humans. Bears that are rewarded by easy meals spend more time in neighborhoods and near people, increasing risks to public safety, the likelihood of property damage, and the possibility that the bears may be hit and killed by vehicles."

DEEP has several best practices for residents to reduce the likelihood of an encounter with a bear, available online on DEEP’s “Living with Black Bears” website,https://portal.ct.gov/DEEP-Living-with-Black-Bears. DEEP has also created a video incorporating many of these best practices, available here.