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North Carolina, says 

 Warburton. As of 

 1991, that number 

 had reached 5.5 

 million acres. 

 Scientists estimate 

 that about 4,500 to 

 5,000 black bears 

 now live in coastal 

 North Carolina. 



One factor in 

 the population 

 growth is the 

 resourcefulness of 

 the bears. Black 

 bears (the only bear 

 species indigenous 

 to North Carolina) 

 traditionally live in 

 the solitude of 

 rough woodlands 

 and dense forests. 

 Many of their 

 traditional habitats 

 have been taken 

 over by humans. 

 Yet scientists are 

 finding high 

 densities of black 

 bears in areas they'd 

 consider unfavor- 

 able for the species, 

 says Warburton. 



"Black bears 

 are very adaptable," he says. "They 

 get by with quite a diverse range of 

 habitat." These habitats can include 

 bays, upland swamps, mountainsides 

 and deep thickets. 



Many researchers point out that 



human intolerance of bears — even 

 more than human development — 

 is a main threat to the black bear's 

 survival. Bears can adapt to people, 

 but people don't always react posi- 

 tively to bears. 



It's their 

 adaptability that 

 gets bears into 

 trouble. Although 

 bears usually keep 

 their distance from 

 humans, they will 

 return to places 

 where they know 

 a good meal is 

 easily available. 

 Campers who leave 

 food unattended, 

 residents who leave 

 garbage cans 

 overflowing or 

 hikers who feed 

 bears scraps 

 condition bears 

 to look to humans 

 as a source of 

 food. Most "bear 

 attacks" occur 

 when the large 

 mammals lose their 

 natural fear of 

 people. Stories are 

 told of bears in the 

 Appalachian 

 Mountains that 

 beg for food at 

 roadsides or follow 

 a trail of cookies. 

 But those bears 

 can become more aggressive if the bag 

 of treats is taken away. Eventually, 

 some bears have had to be relocated or 

 even killed by wildlife managers. 

 Because North Carolina's coastal 

 Continued 



COASTWATCH 23 



