A Wildlife Biologist with Manitoba Agriculture and Resource Development Janine Wilmot says black bears are the most common type of bear you’ll see in the province. She notes there is an abundant population in Manitoba estimated to be around 25 to 35 thousand.

So far this summer has seen a higher number of black bear incidents reported to the province than usual and Wilmot explains the province doesn’t know for sure why this is the case. She says they think that several different factors are coming into play probably the most important of which is the late spring that occurred in many parts of the province and that just sort of pushed back the time frame of when all the vegetation was greening up to make that food available to black bears so of course when they aren’t able to access their natural food sources they tend to go roaming and looking for other sources of food and their noses get them into trouble when they find human based food sources.

Wilmot adds it’s important to secure any attractants for bears such as food, garbage, and bird feeders.