Black Bears Moving Further East, Now Pushing To Black Hills & Northeast Wyoming

Wyoming’s black bears are rambling and rambunctious, and lately they’ve been pushing into the Black Hills region and elsewhere in northeast Wyoming.

They’ve been reported raiding beehives and chicken coops, but so far haven’t had any major conflicts with humans.

The case of one bear in particular shows just how far they’ll go to seek out new territory and food sources, northeast Wyoming resident Owen Miller told Cowboy State Daily.

When a black bear became a nuisance there two years ago, Wyoming Game and Fish agents trapped it, tagged it and released it far to the west in the Laramie Mountain Range.

But the bear decided to come back.

“This year, a hunter shot it close to Newcastle,” Miller said. “It had traveled 175 miles.”

An Uptick In Bears

The history of bears in the Black Hills region is somewhat murky, Game and Fish large carnivore specialist Dan Thompson told Cowboy State Daily.

“When one looks at the historical records of mammals and wildlife in the Black Hills proper, there is mention of black bears, but not a great deal of information on their density, suggesting they were around but not in great abundance,” Thompson said.

After consulting with northeast Wyoming Game and Fish experts Nate Holst and Joe Sandirini, Thompson said the agency first started getting reports of bears there about 10 years ago.

There’s also been an “uptick” in reports over the last five years, Thompson added.

So far, there haven’t been any major incidents with bears and humans in the Black Hills and surrounding regions, but those areas draw lots of people, so the potential is there.

“We've had a few black bears get into trouble with beehives, sheep and chickens, and with the amount of people in the forest there's a lot of conflict potential,” Thompson said.

Time To Go Bear Hunting?

Miller is an avid bear hunter, but usually goes elsewhere in Wyoming.

Grizzlies remain federally protected and may not be hunted in Wyoming, but are spring and fall black bear hunting seasons throughout the state.

Northwest Wyoming and the Bighorn Mountains are favored by bear hunters, but the Black Hill region isn’t that popular, at least not yet.

Even so, with more black bears showing up there, Miller has pondered bear hunting closer to home.

“I considered baiting bears this year in the Black Hills, but didn't get it done,” he said.

However, he caught photos of bears on some of the trail cameras he set up in the Black Hills, so the prospects are looking good.

The black bear also population seems to be booming in the other parts of the state, where Miller hunts elk.

“I have to keep food locked up in elk camp or black bears will tear up my camp,” he said.

Not Yet An Established Population

The black bears showing up in northeast Wyoming so far are probably just wandering through, Thompson said.

“Thus far, everything we have seen has likely been dispersing subadult males,” he said. “Young male bears can disperse from the Bighorns, Laramies (Laramie Mountain range) as well as south from Montana.”

“As far as we know we do not have a breeding population of black bears in the Black Hills,” he said.

There’s no evidence of grizzlies in that area either, he added.

Grizzlies have been expanding their range around Wyoming and across the region.

After years of unconfirmed rumors of grizzlies in the Bighorn Mountains, a young grizzly was killed for preying on cattle near Ten Sleep in April.

Grizzlies have also been reported pushing farther south into the Wyoming and Wind River Mountain ranges in southcentral Wyoming.

They’ve also been pushing ever-further eastward out into the high prairies of Montana.

Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.