In a new study, researchers found that black bears (Ursus americanus) reproduced at a younger age in urban areas and were nearly twice the size of bears in national forests shortly after their first birthday.

The study of the reproduction and size of wild black bears living in and around the city of Asheville, North Carolina, has important implications for managing urban bear populations. Also, the results raise questions about the foraging activities and diet of urban bears, and whether food from people or an abundance of natural food could be providing the bears with a reproductive advantage.

“Some of the bears in Asheville are reproducing at a young age, and they are big,” says Nick Gould, postdoctoral research scholar at North Carolina State University and lead author of the paper in the Journal of Mammalogy.

“It definitely leads us, as researchers, to ask additional questions: What’s driving this kind of weight gain in young bears this early in life? Are they eating natural foods, bird seed, and ornamental fruit, or feeding on residential garbage?”

Researchers collaborated with the residents of Asheville to capture black bears on private property between April 2014 and September 2018. The bears were temporarily sedated and then released on-site where they were captured. Researchers collected data on the bears’ weight, age, general condition, sex, and other information. The research team used GPS-equipped radio collars, designed to fall off naturally or to be released remotely, to track the female bears to their den sites to monitor reproductive activity.

Read the full article about black bears in the city by Laura Oleniacz at Futurity.