Seven U.S. States Reporting the Most Bear Incidents

Bear encounters are rising across the United States, but a handful of states account for a disproportionate share of close calls, conflicts and attacks. The pattern reflects where bears still have strong footholds, where people are pushing deeper into their habitat and where food, both natural and human, is easiest to find. Focusing on seven key states shows how geography, policy and human behavior combine to create some of the country’s busiest front lines of bear activity.

From the vast backcountry of Alaska and Montana to the crowded suburbs of Connecticut and New Jersey, wildlife agencies are logging everything from nuisance trash raids to fatal maulings. The details vary, yet the same themes repeat: growing bear populations, expanding development and an ongoing struggle to keep encounters from turning into casualties for people or animals.

Alaska and Montana: High-stakes encounters in big bear country

Alaska sits at the top of almost any list of bear incidents simply because it holds the largest wild bear populations in the country. The state’s mix of coastal rainforest, tundra and mountains supports dense numbers of black bears and brown bears, and national parks such as Denali National Park see frequent bear encounters, including fatal attacks, in remote settings where help can be hours away. Large stretches of the state are accessible only by plane, boat or rough roads, so many interactions happen far from medical care and often involve hunters, anglers and backcountry travelers. That combination of high bear density and high exposure keeps Alaska near the top of national tallies for serious incidents.

Montana offers a similar mix of risk, with a twist: it is one of the few states in the Lower 48 where people regularly share trails and campgrounds with grizzly bears as well as black bears. Data compiled on Recent Fatal Bear shows a defensive grizzly bear killed one man in Montana in 2022, underscoring how quickly a surprise encounter can turn deadly. The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service describes the grizzly bear, Ursus arctos horribilis, as a species that still occupies parts of Montana, Idaho, Wyoming and Washington, and directs visitors to the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee for bear safety guidance tailored to this larger, more assertive species. With a rugged landscape that includes Glacier National Park and extensive national forest, Montana combines high levels of outdoor recreation with overlapping bear ranges, driving a steady stream of close encounters.

Wyoming and Colorado: Growing conflicts along the wildland edge

Wyoming rounds out the core of the Northern Rockies bear hotspot, sharing grizzly populations linked to Yellowstone and Grand Teton as well as widespread black bears in forested ranges. Large areas of Wyoming remain rural, but expanding tourism and second-home development around gateway communities bring people into daily contact with bears that are accustomed to roaming long distances for food. Historical attack mapping, such as the Map of North American bear incidents that includes Shoshone National Forest, illustrates how often serious encounters cluster around this ecosystem. The same wilderness that attracts hikers, anglers and hunters also concentrates bears that have learned to associate campsites, trailheads and carcass sites with easy calories.

South of the Yellowstone region, Colorado has emerged as one of the most active states for black bear conflicts, driven by a mix of mountain towns, Front Range suburbs and productive bear habitat. State wildlife officials report that bear conflicts were frequent throughout Arapahoe, Douglas, Elbert and Jefferson counties in spring and early summer, and that in Routt and Jackson counties bears caused significant property damage when they gained access to attractants such as trash and livestock feed. The agency described an above average number of bear conflicts and sightings in 2025 and noted that there was no reported bear activity in Area 12 that year, a reminder that local conditions can vary sharply inside one state. Those patterns align with the observation from staffer Van Hoose that bear reports fluctuate depending on natural food availability and spike in what he called a “food failure year,” when berries, nuts or acorns are scarce and animals are driven into neighborhoods. That dynamic plays out across Colorado, where high-profile incidents in mountain counties have pushed communities to invest in bear-resistant trash cans, education campaigns and targeted enforcement around unsecured attractants, as highlighted in coverage of the region with the most bear conflict that quoted Van Hoose directly.

California: High visitation and habituated bears

California illustrates how a state with primarily black bears can still rank high for incidents because of sheer numbers of people and heavily visited parks. In Yosemite National Park, managers track bear activity closely and warn drivers to slow down and pay attention to roadsides after recording twenty-seven bears hit by vehicles in a single year. The park’s “Bear Facts” guidance urges visitors to secure food and scented items, noting that human carelessness trains animals to associate cars, campgrounds and cabins with easy meals. Over time, that pattern has produced generations of habituated bears that know how to open car doors, break into coolers and patrol picnic areas, particularly in the Sierra Nevada corridor that runs through California.

Statewide, California also benefits from a relatively healthy black bear population supported by diverse habitat that stretches from coastal ranges to high alpine forests. National estimates of Black Bear Population by State list several western states with more than 100,000 animals, and California’s mix of wildland and exurban growth creates many of the same tensions seen in Colorado and Montana. In Yosemite, the park’s safety messaging, including the call to “Slow Down!” and pay attention to roadsides when driving, reflects a broader push to cut down on vehicle strikes and food-conditioning in a state where millions of visitors pass through bear habitat each year. The combination of high human traffic and bears that have learned to exploit unsecured food keeps California among the states where people are most likely to see, photograph or inadvertently feed a bear.

Connecticut and New Jersey: Suburban hotspots in the East

On the opposite side of the country, Connecticut and New Jersey show how bear incidents can surge even in relatively small, densely populated states. Wildlife officials in Connecticut have warned that conflicts between black bears and residents far outpace neighboring states with larger bear populations, citing a sharp rise in home break-ins, livestock attacks and confrontations on hiking trails. One report from the state’s Department of Energy and Environmental Protection stated that “While the number of human-bear conflicts varies from year to year, the overall trend from the past five years shows a dramatic increase” and described that trend as “concerning from a safety perspective.” That same message has been echoed in coverage noting that bears have entered a record high number of homes, with officials tying the surge to unsecured trash, backyard bird feeders and outdoor pet food in communities that sit squarely inside expanding bear range. Those warnings have turned Connecticut into a case study of what happens when a recovering bear population collides with suburban sprawl.

New Jersey, which is often described as the most densely human populated state in the nation, faces a similar challenge in its northwestern counties. Reporting on the state’s bear hunt noted that despite New Jersey’s standing as the most densely human populated state in the nation, the northwestern part of the state also has some of the highest densities of black bears and an abundance of food, both natural and man-produced. That mix of forested ridges, farms and subdivisions has produced a steady stream of sightings, property damage and occasional attacks, prompting contentious debates over hunting and non-lethal control. At the same time, national coverage has highlighted that black bear encounters are surging in 18 states, with one witness, Ben-Arie, age 45, describing how he tried to make a bear aware of his presence, a reminder that individual behavior can shape how these interactions play out. Together, Connecticut and New Jersey illustrate that bear incidents are no longer confined to remote forests or national parks.