Black bears are moving into the neighborhood. How do we coexist?

Living with black bears is complicated. They’re huge, hungry, and they really don’t care about your hostas. After a long period of being overhunted, black bears are on the rebound. And as they begin returning to parts of their native ranges, they’re finding humans there, too.

Reporter Cassandra Stephenson joins Flora to talk about how these interactions are playing out in southeastern states. Then, carnivore ecologist Nyeema Harris joins to discuss best practices for coexistence.

Guests:

Cassandra Stephenson covers issues impacting rural West Tennessee as a Report for America corps member at The Tennessee Lookout. She’s based in Nashville.

Dr. Nyeema Harris is an associate professor of wildlife and land conservation at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut.

Transcript will be available after the show airs on sciencefriday.com.

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