In it annual report released March 2023, The Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) analyzes black bear population growth and reveals the number of human/bear conflicts in 2022.
Public sightings of bears have been collected by the Wildlife Division since bears began returning to the State in the 1980’s.
Today, reports are used as a gauge of the population’s distribution as well as a broad index of where bears are seen more often. Reports from the public can have a high degree of variability, particularly given the human population density and how novel bear sightings are to an area.
Read ‘The State of Bears’ report (.pdf).