Black bears wander back into Ohio, raiding trash cans and porches

Ohio's black bears are showing up in record numbers. The state logged 537 sightings across 69 counties in 2025, the highest tally ever, according to the 2026 Ohio Black Bear Monitoring Report. That's up from 370 sightings in 55 counties in 2024 and 260 in 49 counties in 2023. Over the past decade, the Division of Wildlife has averaged 239 sighting reports a year.

More than 1,500 bear encounters have landed with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources since 2022, and the animals have been reported in 69 of Ohio's 88 counties, with a few straying into more populated spots near Pataskala in Licking County in 2025. Of the 4,793 sightings recorded since 1993, nearly a third came between 2022 and 2025. Officials say the true count is likely higher, because sightings are probably under-reported.

Coshocton County is getting the brunt of it. Brandan Smith found a bear sifting through his rubbish in rural Coshocton on a mild evening in mid-July, then went back outside to film it from 25 feet away as it ate old freezer-burned ice cream. Police showed up half an hour later and drove the animal off with a spotlight. Coshocton logged one confirmed sighting in 2023, one in 2024 and 11 in 2025.

Smith isn't alone. Erica Gray spotted a bear with a white chest marking resting near her mother's cabin outside Fresno, then watched it lap up grape jelly from a bird feeder meant for Baltimore orioles. In Newcomerstown, West Elementary principal Erin Peoples got a Ring camera alert showing a bear on her porch peering through a window — one of her teenage daughters texted back, 'Is that AI?' Carla Miller saw one walking the fence line inside the pig pasture at Wooly Pig Farm Brewery near Fresno, and it came back for pokeberries even after the momma pigs ran it off.

Don Dunlap was fishing about two miles from Wills Creek Dam on Oct. 3 when a bear stopped 50 yards away and stared him down, likely chasing fish up the backwater. He intercepted the animal on a nearby road to get video, then returned with his wife to photograph tracks in the mud. Black bears once thrived here — forests covered about 95% of Ohio in 1803 — but settlers felled the woods for farms and killed bears that preyed on livestock, and by 1900 only 10% of the state was wooded. Ohio upgraded the species from 'extirpated' to 'endangered' in 1995.

Wildlife biologist Katie Dennison credits Ohio's neighbors for the surge: 'West Virginia and Pennsylvania have seen a lot of growth in their bear populations. That means the bears are starting to naturally expand to Ohio.' The state's report says most bears here are 'dispersing or transient males' that likely don't stay long. Mariela Gantchoff, a University of Dayton ecologist who has studied recolonizing bears for 13 years, says males are typically the first to push into new territory. The ODNR advises anyone who meets a bear to stay calm, back away slowly, avoid running or climbing trees, and raise their arms and shout if it approaches. Sightings can be logged through ODNR's Wildlife Reporting System or by calling 1-800-WILDLIFE.