Connecticut’s 944 black bear records concentrate where the bears did first: the forested northwestern hills. Litchfield and Hartford counties hold the bulk of the record, with state forests such as Peoples, Mohawk, and Nassahegon anchoring the core, but the map now reaches all eight counties in the state.
A return written one county at a time
Bears were gone from Connecticut for well over a century, hunted out as the forests were cleared for farms. As the woods grew back, bears recolonized from the north and west beginning late in the twentieth century, and the record shows the result: a northwestern stronghold with a steady scatter of dispersing animals, most of them young males, turning up in suburbs and towns far from the core. The Appalachian National Scenic Trail corridor and the ridge forests along it carry some of the state’s most wooded ground.
A spring peak in a small, crowded state
Reports build through spring and crest in May and June, when bears feed hard after denning and yearlings strike out on their own. In a state as settled as Connecticut, that movement brings bears through yards and across roads, and encounters near houses usually trace back to unsecured garbage or birdseed. Most such meetings end with the bear leaving, and even in the most bear-heavy towns a resident will rarely see one.
Status in Connecticut
NatureServe ranks the American black bear S5, Secure, in Connecticut, and the species is native to the state. USGS NAS does not list it as nonindigenous here.
Full species profile
