Jurisdictional survey of American black bear management across the United States and Canada

Across North America, American black bears (Ursus americanus) are managed by individual jurisdictions (e.g., states, provinces, territories), which do not have efficient means of sharing management data. This has resulted in the absence of a comprehensive summary of range-wide management trends and patterns, which has hindered the ability of wildlife managers to compare the prevalence and effectiveness of management actions. We fill that gap by compiling information from a 2022 survey of managers on black bear population trends, management strategies, and human–bear interactions throughout the United States (U.S.) and Canada. There were a reported 937,704 (range H 877,022–998,386) black bears across the U.S. and Canada. Regulated hunting and vehicle strikes were the first and second leading causes of documented mortality, respectively. Of the 51 (82.2%) jurisdictions with resident bear populations, 25 (49%) reported increasing populations, and 27 (52.9%) reported increasing bear range. Most jurisdictions (88.2%) with resident bear populations have regulated bear hunting seasons. Public outreach was the most reported management strategy, and almost all jurisdictions (98%) with resident bear populations utilized this method. We also aggregated population estimates from surveys conducted from 1984 to 2015 to evaluate broad temporal trends and estimate annual population growth across the U.S. and Canada. Results suggest an annual bear population growth rate of about 1.1%, although the methods used by each jurisdiction to generate population estimates were unclear. We assume some estimates were given as expert opinion based on the best available data as opposed to being empirically derived; therefore, our estimated annual growth is not statistically rigorous and represents an informed estimation from available data. Our findings reveal the management similarities and differences between jurisdictions and indicate potential opportunities for more coordinated management initiatives on topics such as feeding prohibitions, regulations and resources for use of bear-resistant garbage containers, and multimethod monitoring programs.