Agency: bruin population on rise in Va.

The Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries continues to get inundated with statewide reports of bear sightings, but it doesn’t surprise Jamie Sajecki, bear project leader with the agency. That’s because Virginia’s bear population is growing at about 9.5 percent annually.

The growth, prevalent up and down the East Coast, is because of stricter hunting regulations, the establishment of protected areas like Shenandoah National Park and the re-growth of woods — a bear’s natural habitat — once stripped away for farming.

That’s quite a change from 1900, when the black bear population in most of the U.S. was almost completely wiped out.

Sajecki cautions the public not to view bear habitation as a nuisance or problem; there has never been an unprovoked bear attack in Virginia, she said.

“The problem is people’s misperception about bears and how dangerous they are,” Sajecki said, adding that most people don’t even know Virginia has just the one type of bear — the black bear. “The problem I see is that people just don’t know enough about them.”

When it comes to cubs, she says the best thing to do is leave them alone. Though Bart the cub’s story of human interaction turned out all right, most times momma bear is right around the corner.

“One thing we tell people, if they do see a bear cub, the worst thing they can do is feed it,” Sajecki said. “Sometimes they will just wander off, and a lot of times the mother bear will come and find them. Chances are they will reunite with their family.”

Apart from housing and rehabilitating animals like Bart, the Wildlife Center of Virginia focuses on education and public policy. It employs three full-time vets and is completely funded with donations, operating on an estimated $1 million annual budget. Since its inception, the center has treated and/or housed 53,000 wild patients representing more than 200 species — from the tiniest hummingbirds, wrens and salamanders to black bears, bobcats and foxes.

Wildlife and human health are closely linked, center president and co-founder Ed Clark stressed, mentioning the influx of crossover diseases like the avian flu and West Nile virus.

That’s why it’s so important to be aware of the interface between human changes to the environment and the natural migration of wildlife.

“Whether it is this little bear cub, turtles or birds, many times the problems affecting those wild animals also present a threat to human health,” Clark said.