DNR asks public to report bear dens for management program
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ALPENA -- The Michigan Department of Natural Resources asks Michiganders to keep an eye open for black bear dens between the fall and winter and to report the locations of any dens.
The DNR said reporting the whereabouts of dens to the department helps support bear management programs.
"Finding winter den locations is an important component to managing black bear populations, and we need hunter, trapper and landowner assistance to add new den sites to the program in the Upper Peninsula and northern Lower Peninsula," Mark Boersen, wildlife biologist at the DNR's Roscommon Customer Service Center, said in a statement. "Currently, we are monitoring six bears from the ground and aircraft using radio tracking equipment."
The DNR also gave instructions in the case someone spots a den. People should stay quiet and listen for any sounds from the cavern, and they may hear cubs nursing or crying.
If that happens, officials said to keep a safe distance from the den and to record the GPS coordinates of the location.
After receiving a report, DNR biologists go to the den and determine whether any bears are good candidates for a bear management program in which orphaned cubs are taken to a surrogate mother in the springtime.
An adult female bear is called a sow and the biologists will carefully sedate and examine whether a sow may be good to be an adoptive mother.
"These surrogate sows have a GPS radio collar put on them that we can use to track where they are," the DNR said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter. "This lets us find them in their winter den in case an orphaned bear cub is found and needs to be placed with a mama for survival."
The DNR puts the sow back into her den after she's collared. In the springtime, DNR biologists use the tracker to locate the mother that already has cubs of her own.
When a sow sees people, she puts her cubs into a tree for protection and runs away to lure any danger from the cubs.
The biologists will put orphaned cubs into the tree with the others and the sow will take them in as her own.
Those in the Lower Peninsula should contact Mark Boerson at 989-275-5151 or boersenm@michigan.gov if they spot a bear den.
For more information about bear management in Michigan, go to michigan.gov/bear.