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bear attack has ever taken place in the state of Virginia, despite some people’s fears. She cited data that shows, in all of North America, for every person killed by a black bear, 60 are killed by domestic dogs, 180 by bees, and 350 by lightning.
Thus, the risk of injury or death is “extremely minimal,” especially given the hundreds of thousands of human-bear encounters and a population estimate of close to a million North American black bears.
Sajecki announced a new state-wide population estimate of between 12-.000 and 16,000 black bears in Virginia, with the number increasing by about 9.5 percent per year.
Human beings are actually far more dangerous to black bears than bears are to us. If we feed them, Sajecki said, whether inadvertently or on purpose, they may habituate to our garbage cans, bird feeders, pet food containers, or feed bins.
If the problem is addressed promptly, however, and the bear fails to find more food, it will usually leave the area, although this
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