Peter [00:00:00] Okay. It's the last episode of our podcast for now. And we're wrapping up the first season with an animal near and dear to our hearts, the black bear.
Rae [00:00:10] Well, you know, black bears are very special to me for a couple of reasons. One is because I studied bear behavior and ecology for my Ph.D.
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That was a really big deal because it really changed my life. I started doing science communication when I started studying black affairs, and it's brought me all the way here. And then the second reason is because, Peter, the first time you and I were on camera together and the first time we met each other was in the Pacific Northwest doing a story on black bears that had this amazing recovery. And we actually got literally hands-on with them.
Peter [00:00:47] And today, we'll dive into what's being done in New Hampshire to help black bears and humans coexist. I'm wildlife expert, educator, and behavioralist, Peter Gros.
Rae [00:01:00] And I'm wildlife ecologist Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant. And this is Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom. The Podcast Episode 12: Our Black Bear Neighbors.
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Rae: Okay, Peter. So, it's fall now. I just feel like no matter what part of North America you're in. You just know when it's become fall, in a lot of places in North America, it actually gets very cold and the leaves start dropping. But there's something that collectively, as a society, we just love to embrace about the fall.
Peter [00:01:41] We do, and so does the wildlife. They seem to know the humidity is gone; the leaves are falling. There's a crispness in the air, and they instinctively know it's time to prepare for the winter and, in some cases, find a place to hibernate. As for black bears, starting in October, the females–known as sows–are on the move, looking for places to hibernate with their cubs.
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Rae [00:02:06] In the upcoming season of our TV show. Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom Protecting the Wild, we join scientists who track down hibernating bears using the same technology they used back when Marlin Perkins first hosted the original Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom.
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Marlin Perkins: Wildlife biologists have been putting radio telemetry collars on bears in recent years to track them in their habitat. The collars send out radio signals that can be picked up by the antenna as far as 5 miles away. It is necessary to change the battery in these collars each year, the easiest time to do this is in the winter when the black bear is in her den, has delivered her cubs, and the new little family is hibernating.
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Rae [00:02:54] Tracking black bears and making den visits during the winter months are key components to conservation efforts for this species. I was able to join a den check with our guest today, Dan Bailey, on a cold day in New England. Dan works with the New Hampshire Department of Fish and Game.
Dan Bailey [00:03:12] Yeah, so when we're referring to a den check or a den visit, what we're doing is, you know, so first of all, bear hibernate in the winter because food is scarce, and especially sows are giving birth in the wintertime. They choose den locations. You know, a lot of times you think of a den for a bear; you think of this big rock cave. And that's not always the case. You know, the bear that we went into on this episode was denned under just a blown-down tree. You know, she'd made a nest with all of the leaves that were around, and it basically looked like a very large bird's nest underneath this log. But what we're doing is we are going in. We're finding her based on the signal given off by the collar that she is wearing.
Rae [00:03:55] I visited bear dens many times in my work as a researcher, but doing it for Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom: Protecting the Wild was actually a highlight of my hosting gig, and it was clear to me that Dan also had a passion for this work. Turns out that passion and excitement goes back to his childhood.
Dan Bailey [00:04:15] I would get in trouble a lot when I was younger, running out behind my parents’ house, diving into the swamp, chasing frogs, salamanders, you name it. So, you know, as I feel like most of us in the wildlife profession, you know, know what we want to do at a young age. And that certainly was the case with me. You know, I grew up in Connecticut. There weren't as many bears there are now when I was there. But I spent a lot of time in Vermont, which, you know, as a bear population that's similar to New Hampshire. I remember the first time I saw a bear, I think I was I was 9 or 10 years old, at my grandparents' house in Vermont. And I walked out the back door. And there, ten feet away, was this massive black bear.
Rae [00:04:57]: Wow
Dan Bailey: That was actually eating bacon grease that my grandfather had dumped out there in the morning.
Rae [00:05:03] Oh my gosh! So that's a lesson for all of us.
Dan Bailey: Yeah
Rae [00:05:05]: Well, I mean, that origin story of you and bears is really special. I always talk about how it took me like I never saw Bear on accident for many, many years. So I was in graduate school actively studying bears when I saw my first bear, like looking for them. But whenever I, you know, I meet people, and I talk to them about my bear work, they always say, “Let me tell you my bear story, this one time I was surprised to find a bear,” and I always feel a little jealous. I'm like, man, I've never been surprised by a bear, but maybe I shouldn't be jealous. So in your current role is do you have a I mean, I want to get this right. Do you have a focus on bears specifically? Is that part of your work in particular?
Dan Bailey [00:05:45] I'm the bear biologist for New Hampshire Fish and Game. So the Bear Project leader, you know, in New Hampshire, we work as a team. So, you know, our other regional biologists and other project leaders assist me, especially in conflict mitigation work throughout the summer. Just as you know, I assist them. We were chasing a moose on Tuesday out of a fenced in enclosure, so I was working with our moose biologists doing that. So it's really one big team. But yes, my my focus is black bear in New Hampshire.
Peter [00:06:12] Do you have a memory of the very first time you interacted with a black bear up close?
Dan Bailey [00:06:17] I'd say the first one I really remember because a lot of that is you're dealing with the aftermath of, you know, an encounter. You know, a bear came to a house got unprotected chickens. You're now working with the homeowner to, you know, come up with solutions so that that doesn't happen again. First time I saw a bear while working, I'd gotten a call from town of Bedford, which is just south of Manchester, very populated area, but suburban. And this gentleman was claiming that there was a bear that was denning in his backyard. And, you know, you get calls, you know, with a bear in the yard a lot. Usually, when you show up, the bear's gone, or there's another explanation for it being there. But I went out, and there was a very large sow. She had four yearlings, and she was denned in a willow tree in this gentleman's backyard. So, my first interaction with that bear was I was trying to harass it. Naively trying to harass it out of that neighborhood, which it wasn't going anywhere because that was its den location still. So, I was bluff-charged multiple times. So that was my first, first interaction with the bear professionally.
Rae [00:07:26] Sounds like hazing. Sounds like college pledging, you know, a bear fraternity. You got the real deal on day one, right?
Peter [00:07:34] Bluff charging by any animal would get the old adrenaline going.
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Dan Bailey [00:07:39] Oh every time.
Peter [00:07:40]: I've dealt with bluff charges with elephants, Cape buffalo, and even large cats. A bluff charge is when an animal comes to you and then suddenly stops short of attacking. It's kind of like a warning, but you don't always know if it's a bluff or the real thing. Responding to moments when humans and black bears cross paths is a big part of Dan's work.
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Dan Bailey [00:08:02] You know, we pride ourselves on doing a great job of conflict mitigation in the state. We have a team that's highly trained. We have these technicians that we employ for the summer, and their main duty is to respond as these conflicts arise, as first responders. In absence of this program that we have, I feel that our, you know, bear conflicts would be far greater. You know, we average 4 to 600 bear conflicts in the state in any given summer.
Peter [00:08:30] Wow. That's a busy summer.
Rae [00:08:31] In a summer? Not just in a year.
Dan Bailey [00:08:33] In a summer, yeah.
Rae [00:08:34] 4 to 600.
Dan Bailey [00:08:36] Our number one call for assistance are bear getting into unsecured garbage. So that's a big issue. So, we've worked with a lot of municipalities to pass ordinances on garbage storage. We work with campgrounds specifically to make sure they have metal top bear-resistant containers. So yeah, garbage is number one. Unprotected poultry is actually become number two.
Peter [00:09:00] Those seem like pretty simple steps for people in New Hampshire to take: Securing trash and protecting poultry. But I asked Dan, what sort of issues are the bears facing?
Dan Bailey [00:09:12] Specifically, you know, New Hampshire-specific habitat loss is certainly the greatest threat that's facing our black bear. You know, in the last 30 years, our bear population in the state has more than doubled, which was by design. But during that period of time, we've also added over 300,000 residents to the state. And with that comes development, habitat loss, habitat fragmentation, you know, bear species that require large blocks of un-fragmented forest land. So, we need to reduce our bear population. We're finding, and it's important to note that, you know, in New Hampshire and I think many states, bear are managed not a biological carrying capacity, but its social carrying capacity, you know, the number of bear that the public will tolerate on the landscape. You know, I feel like the media over the years, just everything, you know, has portrayed bear in this negative light that, you know, they're this dangerous animal and it's just not the case. And once you educate people on that, you know, they tend to, you know, change their viewpoints pretty quickly.
Peter [00:10:15] Dan's work involves monitoring the well-being of the black bear, too, not just how they coexist with people. That's where den checks come in.
Rae [00:10:24] When we filmed our episode of Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom Protecting the Wild, it was February and we tracked down a bear named Wanda, who had one of those telemetry collars. When we found her den, she wasn't alone.
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Rae: We have three newborn cubs to this mama. I’m going to pass them off to some of our crew to keep them warm. They are too little to thermoregulate right now, which means they cannot produce their own body heat; they need their mother’s body heat or a volunteer to keep them warm. Welcome to motherhood. Okay, take her, and we’re going to open up your jacket, stuff if it, yep. This is science, but it’s also magical!
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Dan Bailey [00:11:09] Once we find the den location, we are mobilizing her. We're then going to take those cubs out. We're going to keep them warm while we collect data off both of them and off of the mother, the sow. And it's important that we also change that battery out in her collar. You know, those batteries die, and this is the perfect opportunity. She's already in this kind of state of sleeping and immobile. We're not putting added stress by catching her a second time to do, you know, do the battery or collect more data. We're collecting all the data we need off her once a year. And it also allows us an opportunity to look at those crops and assess their health.
Rae [00:11:48] Just in case there's people listening that are kind of like, okay, it makes sense to sedate a bear before you, you know, get your hands on it. But why sedate a bear at all? Like, why not just leave them alone? Can you talk to us about why your agency does den checks at all?
Dan Bailey [00:12:05] Yeah. So we're gathering a variety of data on this. One is, you know, reproductive history. Survivability of cubs from year to year. We're also looking–there's a genetic aspect. We're partnering with the Killam Bear Center on this research project. We're taking hair samples from the cubs to look at, you know, relate-ability amongst bears in a given area. So there's a there's a lot of data that you can get from this. But what we're looking at is, you know, reproductive rates. It also lets us look back and confirm how good of a fall mass crop we had based on, you know, how healthy that sow is, how healthy the cubs are. There's data that we did to make informed decisions, and this is just a part of that.
Peter [00:12:48] How are they doing?
Rae [00:12:49] Yeah. How's Wanda?
Dan Bailey [00:12:51] Wanda's. Wanda's doing well. We get GPS points daily on her movements. You know, the bear population in New Hampshire is doing great.
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Of all of the sows that we went in on this year, the three that produced young in the year cubs, two had three cubs, and one bear had two cubs. And all three of those sows were in great body condition. That was expected going into the winter. We were hopeful, you know, seeing those sows in such great body condition, in those cubs, in great body condition, just reiterated what we felt.
Peter [00:13:22] In our episode about the black bear. We also visited a family-run sanctuary in New Hampshire, which cares for abandoned and orphaned cubs. They rehabilitate them so they can eventually be re-released into the wild. It's called the Killam Bear Center and was started by Ben Killam.
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Ben Kilham: We have been rehabilitating bears since 1993 there was no rehabilitation of black bears at the time. We’ve now rehabilitated and returned to the wild 600 black bear cubs.
Rae: What’s kind of common knowledge is that a cub is always with its mother. Why aren’t they with their mother?
Ben Kilham: Something bad happens to their mother. I mean, people are not nice to bears. Every bear that comes to us, the mother, has been killed in one fashion or another.
Rae [00:14:09] And so these cubs wouldn't be able to survive.
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Peter [00:14:11] One of the things he said was people are not nice to bears. What is he saying here when you're talking about people not being nice to bears?
Dan Bailey [00:14:18] There are many, many days. And I come in to work and, you know, the first calls that I get in the morning are from our law enforcement officers letting me know that, you know, bear have been shot by homeowners over conflicts. You know, people lot of people you can educate, and they respect bear. But, you know, some people just do not tolerate bear and will harm them if they're if they're causing any kind of property damage. So that's where a lot of those orphaned cubs come from, unfortunately, are from the public. You know, shooting sows over things like unprotected poultry and livestock, things like that. So, it's a huge asset for me and for our department to have a place like The Killam Bear Center to bring these cubs and give them a second chance.
Peter [00:15:03] So as a result of an adult being shot, that leaves a cub that's too young to make it on its own in the wild. And then, you determine what goes to the Killam Bear Center?
Dan Bailey [00:15:11] Yeah. Cubs, you know, cubs are dependent on their mother for the first, really, 18 months of life.
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If you have a cub that's orphaned this time of year or any time within the first 12 months of their life, odds are they are not going to survive on their own. So there's a lot of different factors that come into play. We're seeing the most orphan cubs on years of poor food production, and we're finding them anywhere. You know, we'll get a call from somebody who's driving on the highway that a sow was hit. There's cubs on her body, you know, and we'll immediately go out and try to get those cubs and get them to the rehab facility. Same with bears that are shot by homeowners. Some sows, especially first-time mothers, will abandon their cubs if they don't feel they can provide for them. So there's a lot of factors, but we know a lot of, you know, a lot of the reasons this is human-related.
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Rae [00:16:05] Before Dan headed out. We wanted to pick his brain about black bears. What sets black bears apart from other bear species? And what should you keep in mind when you're in bear territory?
Dan Bailey [00:16:16] I found that black bear are shy by nature. They're more timid. They are more receptive to harassment. Yes, they're very food motivated. I think of them sometimes, as a large raccoon. That's how I'll describe them to people. The things that they see as food sources are like we talked about unsecured garbage, bird seed, backyard small poultry, and livestock. You know, a lot of people are worried for their children when they call, their pets. Their diet mainly consists of seeds and berries. A very small percentage of that is anything but versus our grizzly bear, polar bear, more carnivorous than you know black bear. Sure, Black bears will take smaller prey opportunistically, but they're not out, you know, searching for it per se.
Peter [00:17:00] I think the most common question we get: What do I do if I see a bear? What do you tell them?
Dan Bailey [00:17:05] Yeah. So, you know, the only reason you're going to see a bear typically out in the wild, in my experience, is that Bear hasn't seen you yet. So, you know, I get a lot of calls from hikers. Should I be carrying bear spray? You know, what should I do if I run into a bear? And really, it's what I give them is you should make your presence known in the times that I've run into Bear in the Woods while out. That's the only reason I've seen them. When a bear sees you, typically before you see it, you don't even know it's there.
Rae: That’s right
Dan Bailey: Or what I like to call a black blur, just sprinting through the woods.
Rae [00:17:39] I think that's right. I like to tell people for every hike you take where you don't see a bear. Very likely, a bear was there. And you– just it just chose not to be seen.
Dan Bailey [00:17:48] Right. So, yeah, it's about making your presence known and clap your hands. I encourage people to bring an air horn if they're concerned.
Rae [00:17:55] Hiking groups. Yeah.
Dan Bailey [00:17:57] Hike in groups.
Peter [00:17:58] Yeah, we hike in groups. Usually, when I would go with my family with three boys who never stopped talking the entire time and then wonder why we never see bears [laughs], chances are they're just seeing us.
Rae [00:18:10] Yeah. There you go. Thank you so much. Dan, thank you for joining us. Thank you for bringing me back– or me and Peter back to that. You know, cold winter, February day, where we had a pretty wild bear adventure.
Peter [00:18:23] Yes, indeed. Yeah. What a treat it was. Thanks, Dan.
Dan Bailey [00:18:27] Thank you both for having me on today.
Rae [00:18:30] Well, we have just finished filming all of season two of our TV show Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom: Protecting the Wild and Man Peter. We really outdid ourselves this time. I can't wait to bring all of the stories from that season. I mean, we were out of the country. We were in tropical environments, we were in Arctic environments, and pretty much everywhere in between.
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Peter [00:18:54] Last season, the beloved television series Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom: Protecting the Wild returned to NBC. Now we're back with even more breathtaking adventures on season two. With intense new challenges, international exploration, and animal encounters like you've never seen before. Continue the legacy with season two of Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom: Protecting the Wild.
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Rae [00:19:24] Season two of Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom: Protecting the Wild debuts on October 5th. Season two of the podcast will be out soon after. Be sure to subscribe to our podcast feed so you won't miss it. In the meantime, you can watch every episode of Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom Protecting the Wild on NBC, Peacock, and NBC.com.
CREDITS
Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom The Podcast is a production of Pineapple Street Studios and Mutual of Omaha.
Our Senior Producer is Stephen Key.
Producers are Xandra Ellin and Jenny Van Soelen.
Associate Producer is Lisa Cerda.
Editor is Darby Maloney.
Executive Producers are Bari Finkel, Gabrielle Lewis, and Jen Wulf.
Pineapple’s Head of Sound & Engineering is Raj Makhija. Senior Audio Engineers are Marina Paiz, Davy Sumner, Javi Cruces, and Pedro Alvira. Additional engineering by Rob Miller and Jason Richards.
This Episode was mixed by Davy Sumner.
Production Music courtesy of Epidemic Sound and Hearst Media Production Group.
Episode Clips courtesy of Hearst Media Production Group.
Fact checking by Justine Daum.
Marketing and Promotion by Emily Poeschl.
This podcast is hosted by me, Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant,
And me, Peter Gros.
Special thanks to Katelyn Williams, Sophie Radmilovich, and Stephanie Diaz.
Today’s episode is based on the Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom series created by Don Meier.
Make sure to listen on the Audacy app, or wherever you get your podcasts.
