A total of 172 bears were killed on highways, died as a result of illegal or marauder activities, or succumbed from other nonhunting causes (electrocution, accidental poisoning, etc.). This is up 28% from the 134 nonseasonal deaths recorded in 2002 (Table 4).

We also examined the relationship of bear nonseasonal mortalities and mast in conjunction with analyzing the data between mast and big game harvests. The data showed a strong negative relationship between both soft and hard mast conditions in relation to nonseasonal bear mortalities. These data are supported by other movement, behavior, and home range studies in the eastern United States which give evidence for the affect that natural food production has on black bears.

There were 87 deaths from vehicular collisions, compared to 82 roadkills in 2002. During years of poor mast production, bears may make drastic long-range movements to find additional food sources. This will likely put them at danger by crossing roads and is the primary reason for the high number of roadkilled bears during the last 2 years. The scarcity of wild foods also can be credited to bears killed as a result of nuisance behavior (61, up 117% from 2002). Illegal kills (17) were very similar to the 14 reported in 2002. As with the legal hunter harvest, males comprised the majority (72%) of nonseasonal deaths.


Written by Christopher W. Ryan

Click On Links Below For PDF Versions of Tables 3-4.

Table 3. Number of Black Bears Killed Each Year In West Virginia and Cause of Death.
(PDF format, 5.23KB)

Table 4. West Virginia NonSeasonal Black Bear Mortalities By County and Type, 2003.
(PDF format, 5.24KB)

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