This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Community Corner

A Not-So-Friendly Neighbor in Killingworth

Black bear spotted roaming backyards in Killingworth may appear harmless, but don't be fooled.

A black bear sighting no longer merits banner headlines but Killingworth remains abuzz about the bruin that had late lunch in Cathy DePalma’s yard July 3.

“I was at the computer about 1:30 in the afternoon and heard a crash,” says Mrs. DePalma. "The bear was unscrewing the top of my squirrel-proof feeder.”

After eating the birdseed, the bear opted for take-out, carrying off suet from another feeder as it shambled into the trees.

Find out what's happening in Durham-Middlefieldwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

One reason for the lingering hubbub is that Mrs. DePalma lives on Swan Lake Trail, in the Jensen retirement community, with the most concentrated population in town. Another is that it appeared – and later disappeared – into the friendly woods of town-owned Parmalee Farm and its well-trodden hiking trails. Some people are jittery about bumping into the bruin which, by photos snapped by Mrs. DePalma and left at the First Selectwoman’s office, is indeed a bruiser.

Echoing the advice of the state’s Wildlife Division, town Animal Control Officer Marian Smith warns, “If you see a bear, just keep your distance,” She worries that newcomers to town from urban areas may treat bears and other wild animals too lightly. 

Find out what's happening in Durham-Middlefieldwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Not Mrs. DePalma.

“I stayed in the house while I took pictures,” she says.

Smart move. While not a zillionth as savage as brown bears, which include the grizzly, black bears are far from teddy bears. From 1900 to 2009, they killed 63 people in the United States and Canada, including 14 victims in the lower 48 states, says a study published May 11 in the Journal of Wildlife Management.  

The risk of a fatal attack, however, is in reality low, according to the study’s lead scientist, Dr. Stephen Herrero of Canada’s University of Calgary. “Each year there are millions of interactions between people and black bears with no injuries to people,” says Herrero, one of the world’s top bear experts.

The study contained two shockers. One gave the lie to the belief that the most dangerous bear is a sow with cubs. Ninety-two percent of the fatal attacks were by lone males. The second surprise is that in 88 percent of the cases, the bear was targeting food – not just garbage or camp rations but people. Scary, yes, but to put things in perspective, a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association noted that four million Americans were bitten by dogs, with about 19 deaths yearly. 

Human-bruin interactions increase as people move into bear country and bear populations expand. Exterminated from Connecticut in the mid-19th Century, bears began to return from the north during the 1980s. Reversion of farms to woodland improved their habitat here.  From July 2010 to this month, the Wildlife Bureau recorded 954 bear sightings. The state’s population may be about 500 animals, biologists say.

Editor's Note: Interestingly enough, only one (1) bear sighting in Killingworth has been reported to the DEEP in the past year.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?