Massachusetts’ 880 black bear records lay the state’s geography bare: the heaviest counts sit in Berkshire, Hampshire, and Franklin counties in the forested west, and the numbers thin steadily eastward, with only scattered records beyond Worcester County.
A western stronghold, pushing east
The Quabbin Reservoir’s protected watershed, October Mountain State Forest, and the wooded corridor along the Appalachian National Scenic Trail hold the heart of the record. Massachusetts bears were reduced to the Berkshire hills by the nineteenth century, and as abandoned farms returned to forest the population spread east decade by decade, which is why records now reach the suburbs of Middlesex and Essex counties. Most of those eastern animals are young dispersers moving through, and a bear in a backyard there is a long way from its core range.
The hibernation gap
Few mammals in the state show a cleaner calendar. Reports nearly vanish in January and February while bears den, then surge to a May through July peak as bears emerge hungry, breed, and roam widely. A bear crossing a yard in June is usually an animal moving between feeding grounds, and the sensible response is distance; black bears almost never press an encounter they can leave.
Status in Massachusetts
NatureServe ranks the American black bear S4, Apparently Secure, in Massachusetts, and the species is native to its Massachusetts range. USGS NAS does not list it as nonindigenous in the state.
Full species profile
