Wisconsin’s 515 black bear records are anchored firmly in the northwoods. Burnett County leads with 60, followed by Bayfield, Douglas, Ashland, and Washburn across the northwestern tier, with named clusters at Apostle Islands National Lakeshore, the Crex Meadows and Fish Lake wildlife areas, and Northern Highland State Forest. The rest of the map reaches well beyond that core: 202 records scatter across 39 other counties, stretching into central and southern Wisconsin.
Expanding south from the northern core
Wisconsin’s bear range was long concentrated in the heavily forested northern third of the state, and that region still holds the record’s center of gravity, from the Saint Croix National Scenic Riverway east to Nicolet National Forest. But bears have been pushing into central and southern counties for decades as forest cover recovered, and the scattered records south of the core fit that continuing spread. A bear in farm country is still a forest animal at heart, working woodlots, wetlands, and river corridors between feeding sites.
A short active year in a long-winter state
The Wisconsin calendar is tight. Reports run near zero from November through March while bears den, then jump through April and May to a June peak, when the breeding season and hungry, recently emerged animals put more bears on the move. Even in the northern core, sightings stay uncommon; a bear usually detects people first and wants no part of the meeting.
Status in Wisconsin
NatureServe ranks the American black bear S5, Secure, in Wisconsin, and the species is native to the state. USGS NAS does not list it as nonindigenous here.
Full species profile
