When Littleton Road residents Wendy and Michael Eldredge were awakened early last Saturday morning by their barking dogs, the last thing they expected to see was a black bear foraging through the birdfeeders. Just ten feet outside their bedroom’s glass doors, a black bear was trying to bite through the thick wire birdfeeder it held in one paw. 

The bear didn’t get the sunflower seeds inside, but it did pull a large bulge in the outer mesh. Startled by the human onlookers, the bear walked away, paused, licked its lips, and then moved off into the woods on the north side of Route 2.

“He/she looked like a yearling to me—maybe 80-100 pounds and pretty cute if you are viewing from the safety of the house,” said Wendy, who wondered if the beehive they had just harvested might have attracted the bear. “I will share my birdseed, but not my honey!” Wendy also worried about the brood, the young bees that the bears particularly like.

Two days earlier, Aron Suliman of Blanchard Road saw a bear he described as “not small, definitely not small” walking along Poor Farm Road near White Lane, an area also on the north side of Route 2.

“If you’re ever going to see bears, June is the month,” said Bill Davis, Central District Manager of the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries & Wildlife. “This is breeding season, and the cubs are dispersing.” Young females born the year before may stay near their mothers, but adolescent males can roam long distances.

“Harvard is the frontier of bear migration,” explained Davis. As New England’s black bear population increases, the bears are extending their range from east and south. “Harvard is right where those migration lines intersect. In the future, Harvard will be bear country. The important thing to keep in mind is that bears want to avoid you as much as you want to avoid them.”

Davis explained that bears have a keen sense of smell and are able to detect some scents a quarter to a half mile away if the conditions are right. They are also able to remember food sources months after leaving them.

To discourage further visits, the Eldredges have taken down the birdfeeders and installed an electric fence around the hive.

For more information on New England’s black bears, Davis recommends Mass Wildlife’s website, www.mass.gov/masswildlife. Anyone who sees a bear walking along a major highway (or killed on the highway), or in a densely populated area is encouraged to send Davis email from the Central District website, www.mass.gov/dfwele/dfw/facilities/districts.htm#central.