RALEIGH, N.C. — You could see more bears out and about as we inch toward summer.

The North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission said there’s an increase in people reporting bear sightings in both rural and urban areas.

What You Need To Know

  • There’s an increase in bear sightings in both rural and urban areas of the state

  • According to experts, there are about 20,000 black bears in North Carolina

  • The black bear is the only species found in North Carolina or elsewhere in the eastern United States 

Commission biologist Greg Batts says a bear’s age can be determined by its teeth.

“You can tell just how old a bear is because they lay down rings just like a tree,” he said.

Batts said that in his 19 years working for the commission, he has never witnessed a bear getting hit along a highway. But recently, a 225-pound black bear was hit and killed along Interstate 540 in Raleigh.

The commission removed the bear’s tooth to gather data. It’s something the commission does to help other state agencies.

“For road-planning purposes, if there's a lot of bears that are hit at a particular spot along highway, they can think about putting a wildlife underpass there,” Batts said.

He said there are about 20,000 black bears in North Carolina — close to 12,000 on the coast and nearly 8,000 in the mountains. He said central North Carolina has a breeding bear population.

“If you look at somewhere like Raleigh, we have a breeding bear population, which means that we have seen sows that have cubs. We've seen those in all the counties to sort of to the north and east of Raleigh,” Batts said.

A bear’s mating season begins in the summer, he said, and cubs are usually born in the winter and stick around the mother bear for a year.

After that, Batts said the cubs are left to survive on their own, and those are the bears people are seeing in their neighborhoods.

“He's looking for somewhere where he's got food and shelter and lots of area to roam where he's not being disturbed, where he's not running into people,” he said.

A male bear’s “home range” is about 25 square miles, while a female bear's is about 10 square miles.

If a bear’s home is disturbed by construction, new development or a large amount of people, the bear will try to find new shelter.

“The optimal habitats for these animals that are north and east of Raleigh are sort of beginning to be all occupied,” Batts said. “So that's why you get these animals that are kind of looking around in a sort of what we call fragmented habitat.” 

Batts said the black bear is the only species found in North Carolina or elsewhere in the eastern United States.

He said a bear sighting is rare, but if you do come in contact with one, he advises you to leave it alone and allow it to move on.

He said if the bear is in close proximity, make yourself appear big, make noise, back away slowly and never run.