Mary Helan Turner holds up a frame of bee brood damaged by a bear having a snack. (Courtesy photos)

Angry bees swarm after having their larvae stolen by a bear at Friendly Crossways.

Is Harvard now bear country? When a young black bear was sighted in Harvard two years ago, Bill Davis, Central District Manager of the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife, said, "Harvard is the frontier of bear migration." He reported that New England's black bear population is increasing and the bears are extending their range east and south. "Harvard is right where those migration lines intersect. In the future, Harvard will be bear country," he predicted.

Numerous bear sightings last week suggest that the future may be here. People reported seeing a small black-back, presumably a young male, in various spots around town, from Fruitlands Museum on the west edge of town to Friendly Crossways Hostel on Littleton County Road on the east. A small bear showed up in Still River, on Park Lane, Old Shirley Road, and in a second yard on Littleton County Road between May 20 and May 27.

Mary Helan Turner, co-owner of Friendly Crossways Hostel, was dismayed Wednesday morning, May 25, to discover several of the family's beehives knocked over and some of the larvae-rich comb gone.

"It had to be something large, like a bear," she said.

Turner, her husband, Keith, and son, James, secured the individual trays in each hive with motorcycle strapping, on advice from a guest at the hostel. Early that evening, while she was listening to a neighbor recount seeing a bear at her own birdfeeder earlier, Turner looked out the window. Their hives had been hit again, though the strapping held. Mary Helan, Keith, and James worked in the dark by truck-light to rig up a motion-triggered strobe light and blasting sound to scare off the bear if he came back. They tested the system, then slept undisturbed Wednesday and Thursday nights, confident the hives were safe. However, when Turner checked the hives Friday morning, a bright, sunny day, some of the hives had been knocked over a third time. Their elaborate defenses worked only at night.

The Turners heard that a bear had appeared later that morning at a bird feeder south of Route 111 on Cobleigh Road in Boxborough, and they were relieved their visitor had moved on.

Littleton police and Acton police also received separate bear reports that Friday. Acton, Littleton, and Boxborough used their reverse 911 systems to advise town residents to remove birdfeeders and to be on the lookout. A bear was seen roaming neighborhoods in Sudbury and Weston last weekend, according to a report in the June 1 issue of the MetroWest Daily News.

According to Davis, young bears stay with their mother about 14 months but then disperse before the June-July breeding season. Young females remain within miles of their original home, but the males may range far for new territory that can cover over 100 square miles. Bears are also said to have an excellent memory for food sources, even years after discovering them.

Paul Willard, Harvard's animal control officer, sees a flaw in this story of a wandering young bear with a taste for birdseed, bee larvae, and backyard mayhem—it's the "a bear" he doubts.

"The same bear can't be at Fruitlands and then 20 minutes later at Friendly Crossways," he said. Showing up in Harvard, Boxborough, Littleton, and Acton on the same day may be equally unlikely. Willard said his family saw a bear crossing their land on Still River Road, though he missed it himself. He suspects that the bears are living on the South Post of Devens, just across the Nashua River from Still River.

A marauding bear left toppled hives in its wake at Friendly Crossways.