Populations
Before Europeans settled in America, black bears were abundant and could be found in all of the forested regions of North Carolina. But they were killed by early settlers to protect themselves and for their raw materials. In time, black bears across the state were losing their habitats from agricultural developments and clear-cutting, which is removing every tree in an area. In the mid 1900s, black bears had very low population levels and were restricted to remote areas. Then in the 1920s, the American chestnut blight, a tree killing fungus, came into the Mountain region, where the black bears were mostly there, and destroyed the most important nut-producing tree for bears. With their main source of food, gone, bear population suffered.
Causes of population disturbance
Native Americans and European settlers killed black bears for protection and raw materials, such as their fur, and meat. Later on, black bears lost their habitats because of agricultural developments and clear-cutting, which led to them moving to more remote areas of the state, such as the mountains. But in the 1920s, a tree killing fungus called the American Chestnut Blight, came into the mountains and almost wiped out the American chestnut trees. Since the nuts from chestnut trees were a big food source for black bears, they starved and almost went extinct.
How black bears' population is maintained:
Black bears have low mortality rates because they have no natural predators and are unaffected by diseases and parasites (directly). But causes of their mortality are hunting, poaching, car accidents, starvation (ex: 1920 chestnut blight), intra-specific predation, or killing and eating an individual of the same species (cannibalism), and depredation permit kills, which is basically killing an animal because of property damage it's causing.
How black bears' population is maintained:
Black bears have low mortality rates because they have no natural predators and are unaffected by diseases and parasites (directly). But causes of their mortality are hunting, poaching, car accidents, starvation (ex: 1920 chestnut blight), intra-specific predation, or killing and eating an individual of the same species (cannibalism), and depredation permit kills, which is basically killing an animal because of property damage it's causing.
recovery
Because of sanctuaries for black bears, they have made an amazing comeback. The first black bear sanctuary was in 1971. There were 28 bear sanctuaries in 800,000 acres of habitat. The idea was that female bears would reproduce in these sanctuaries, and their population would increase and expand into surrounding areas. In 1984, the black bear population of eastern North Carolina was about 2,000 to approximately 17,000 (not shown in the graph) as of 2012, black bears occupying 61% of North Carolina.