Overview

• Ohio Department of Natural Resources has tagged a female black bear in Ashtabula County on June 3, marking the first collared female in the state’s GPS monitoring effort.
• The ongoing study builds on last July’s collaring of a male bear in northeast Ohio and will track individuals for about 18 months to assess habitat use and reproduction.
• Confirmed black bear sightings soared from nine in 1993 to 210 in 2024, with experts estimating 50 to 100 bears visit Ohio annually thanks to hunting bans and expanding eastern forests.
• A young male bear dispersing through the Dayton area has underscored the species’ range expansion beyond traditional eastern woodlands.
• ODNR advises residents to secure trash, remove bird feeders and follow recommended bear-encounter protocols to minimize conflicts as the population grows.