The North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission has been ebbing back protections for the black bear, a neighbor some see as a nuisance, but others see as misunderstood animals worth protecting.
Notably, the NCWRC voted in 2022 to remove sanctuary status for black bears and allow hunting in Panthertown Valley. HB 1072 was then introduced in the NC House, which would have overruled the NCWRC plans to allow hunting. It stalled later last year. The NCWRC has yet to issue permits for bear hunting in Panthertown, continuing a state of limbo. Permits are unlikely to be issued this year due to timing.
Panthertown Valley was previously designated as a black bear sanctuary, meaning bears were usually allowed to roam in their natural habitat. Panthertown had implemented certain BearWise procedures, including adding and requiring campers to use bear-resistant containers.
Panthertown Valley has received reports of bear encounters throughout the area, including bears carrying off hanging bags and being less receptive to hazing means to encourage bears to keep their distance. Beyond Panthertown’s encounters, black bear encounters seem to be growing in recent years across the region.
Local social media pages frequently feature anecdotes or photos of bears rummaging through their industrialized neighbor’s trash cans or being seen in driveways, bears being injured, cubs sighted, or other encounters.
Despite these chance encounters, executive director of Friends of Panthertown, Jason Kimenker, has previously expressed disapproval in changing sanctuary status to management status and allowing hunting during bear season.
Among this public opposition is Bill Lea, a retired U.S. Forest Service employee and photographer who has fallen in awe with bears due to their individuality.
Lea, who has been photographing bears since the 1990s, has used his photography to help advocate for bears. He admits he initially didn’t know much about bears, but his photography allowed him to get to know these creatures better.
“I just became fascinated by coming to know different bears and to understand how individual each bear is. Plus they’re so incredibly intelligent. And they’re a lot like dogs and I’ve always been a dog lover,” Lea said.
Lea said bears vary in their personalities just like dogs do. He said he’s noticed playful bears, bashful bears, more serious bears, and even helicopter-parent bears. Lea ‘knew’ a bear he described as a ‘strict disciplinarian’ who didn’t let her cubs wander. He said he also knew a bear who was the opposite and let her cubs roam.
“Every bear has his or her own personality and they have their own way of doing things,” Lea said. “We all realize every dog has his or her own personality, but because we don’t know bears and because for most people all bears look alike, we just don’t think about how individual each bear is.”
Some of these different personalities present themselves in the photographs Lea displays on his website, BillLea.com. Take, for instance, Hotshot, who knows he certainly is, or Hanna, who props herself up between trees. Along with different personalities, Lea said they have different looks and expressions.
When photographing bears, Lea tries to approach them calmly to relay his harmless intentions.
“When a bear encounters a human, they never know what they’re going to get. A soft, calm voice relays your intentions,” he said.
The bears that appear on Lea’s website are named. Lea said some wildlife officials may discourage the practice of naming bears because it can cause human empathy and backlash about hunting or killing creatures that can be named. Lea looks at wildlife agencies in a less than favorable light, saying they may have a conflict of interest when it comes to managing or protecting wildlife.
“Their goal is to produce numbers for hunters to kill that then turns around and generates income for their jobs and their agency,” Lea said.
Despite his bear advocacy, Lea is not opposed to hunting, but he is opposed to hunting in unethical ways. Lea thinks hunting bears with dogs is “the cruelest” form of hunting he knows.
“The use of a pack of hunting dogs to track [bears] down and exploit that fear by treeing them, which is a natural thing for a bear to do, and then to be shot and killed to me is the most horrible way to die,” Lea said. “Bear hunting with dogs is not a hunting issue, it’s a cruelty issue.”
The practice can also be cruel to dogs in the event the bear decides to fight back. Dr. JoAnne Roesner, an experienced veterinarian in Rabun County, Georgia, said she and colleagues have had to stitch dogs up who have had these encounters.
Lea is also against removing sanctuary status and changing it to allow hunting. After all, bears can’t read the notices.
“Bears know safe zones, they know areas where they’re not targeted. Why not give the bears an area, let them keep an area they’ve known is safe for over 50 years,” he pondered.
Lea said the bear hunting may yield more bears, similar to how coyotes have expanded despite America’s best efforts to ensure the opposite. Lea said wildlife resource organizations often want populations to remain steady or increase so more hunters can take more game.
As for cohabitation with bears, Lea thinks it’s up to us to learn to coexist peacefully. For Lea, this begins with a better understanding of bears as well as better public education.
A lot of human-bear encounters may be unintentional. For instance, hikers may stumble across bears or bears may wander into human territories looking for food. Encounters may be exacerbated by fear and uncertainty from both parties directed at the other.
Of course, intentional bear encounters are a bad idea and humans should know better than to feed bears or lure them to their property on purpose.
Lea said naturally fearful bears may communicate, like with a bluff charge or standing up. Lea said a bluff charge can be a sign a bear feels intimidated, but it is not a sign of aggression. As for rearing up, this may be a result of the bear attempting to get a better scope on what it feels threatened by. Dogs, especially, can provoke a bear into feeling cornered and spur a negative encounter. People may then project their fears onto bears, in turn viewing bears as inherently dangerous.
“A lot of people think bears are dangerous, aggressive creatures. Some people think bears are hell bent on eating human flesh, which couldn’t be further from the truth. Bears are non-confrontational and typically shy, but they are reactive. We don’t want to startle bears,” Lea said.
Ways to avoid these startling encounters include locking trash in bear proof containers and making a bit of noise on hiking trails. Not enough noise to be obnoxious or disruptive, but enough at a conversational volume so bears and humans don’t bump into each other.
Lea said a lot of this misunderstanding stems from fears about what people think bears may do, which he said are often not based on what bears actually tend to do.
“We should seek ways to coexist peacefully. We’re supposed to be the intelligent species. We can coexist peacefully if we so desire to,” Lea said.