HARTFORD — State officials say Connecticut has seen an increasing number of bear attacks on livestock and beehives.
The state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection issued a release Thursday saying there have been more than a dozen reports this year of bears attacking livestock and killing goats, sheep, chickens and rabbits, well above the normal amount for the same time period in recent years.
The attacks have occurred in Barkhamsted, Winchester, Morris, Bethlehem, Watertown, Thomaston, Campville and Roxbury.
The department says bears are also being more aggressive in getting into beehives.
"Spring is typically a period of low natural food availability for bears, often causing them to opportunistically seek other foods, including livestock," said Rick Jacobson, director of the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection Wildlife Division. “This year's high number of livestock attacks may be due to the growing number of bears occurring over a broader area of western Connecticut."
The department recommends that livestock owners and beekeepers use well-maintained electric fences with barbed wire to keep the bears away.
DEEP tries to trap the bears when responding to reports of a livestock attack, at which point the bears are tagged and subjected to negative conditioning before being released. This can include shooting the bear with rubber bullets or paintballs, pepper spray or loud noises. The pain and irritation that these stimuli cause in the bears causes them to have a negative association with the area, so they won't return.
If a bear that is tagged keeps attacking livestock it may be euthanized.
There were 4,488 sightings of black bears across Connecticut during 2015.
The DEEP Wildlife division monitors the bear population through sighting reports, if you see a black bear in Connecticut, you’re encouraged to report it here.