This summer I’m hearing multiple reports of bears getting into bird feeders. None of them surprise me.

Twenty years ago, scientists figured that there were about 50 bears in western New York, all close to the state line. The numbers are a little higher now. In fact, they’re a LOT higher.

I guess I can’t say it’s official, but it’s actual; we live in bear country.

Fifty years or so back, when so much land was still cleared for farming and pasture, New York bears didn’t have much habitat outside of the Catskills and Adirondacks – our small western New York population consisted on outliers from Pennsylvania. As the forest has come back, the bears have charged back with it.

Bear cubs are in danger from adult males, so when the D.E.C. had two cubs to release in 1997, they did it in High Tor, near Naples. High Tor seemed like good bear country. It was also, they figured, still a couple of years ahead of the advancing population line, which would give the cubs a chance to grow up and hold their own.

Not too long after that bears were being spotted within shouting distance of Lake Ontario. Bears have turned up within the built-up sections of Naples, Bath, and Elmira. They’ve expanded their range so much that our three separate populations – Catskills, Adirondacks, and western New York – now overlap.

Our local bruin is the black bear, smaller than the brown (or grizzly) bear from western states. Black bears are omnivorous. They don’t hunt much… they’re not really predators, though they’ll certainly take meat and fish when they can get it… even as carrion, but largely including insects that they scarf up along with vegetation. Vegetation is most of their diet by far.

They’re not really hunters, and they mostly try to stay out of our way. On the other hand they’re powerful, big, and FAST. If we do get mixed up with one, it’s not going to go well for us. Which shows why it’s a bad idea to let them discover bird feeders as a quick food stop. This almost guarantees run-ins, and those run-ins have the potential to be gravely dangerous for us – which also makes them gravely dangerous for the bear. Animal-control people have a saying that a fed bear is a dead bear. D.E.C. may have no choice but to find it and kill it before tragedy ensues.

The good news is that they hibernate in prime feeder season. A rule of thumb is to fill your feeders between Thanksgiving and Easter, and DON’T the rest of the year. And for heaven’s sake, don’t try to feed the animals yourself. They’re wild. They’ve never heard of Yogi Bear.

Bear attacks have also come from people trying to get close-up photos. Don’t. Those magnificent shots that you see in magazines are taken by experts with extremely expensive specialty lenses, working at VERY long distances.

Bear encounters are actually infrequent. In a lifetime that includes tramping woods from Virginia to Maine, I’ve only had three bear sightings: a yearling on a dirt road near Buena Vista; a mother with cub on Harrisburg Hollow Road near Bath; and, since I started his draft, a yearling or small female on Cold Springs Road in Urbana. My wife also saw one from our kitchen window between Bath and Mitchellsville.

Healthy adult males can weigh 550 pounds, while females usually top out around 375. You can’t outrun them, you can’t outdig them, you can’t outclimb them, you can’t outswim them, and you certainly can’t outfight them. You don’t have to be terrorized of them, but stay safe! Close up the feeder, give them a wide berth, and treat them with supreme respect.