A beekeeper living near Hooker and Olson roads west of Sequim is surprised to find two of his hives smashed and telltale bear tracks in the mud.
State Fish and Wildlife agents shoot three cougars after three goats were found dead on the forested edge of Bridgehaven south of Port Ludlow, an area of the Toandos Peninsula where cougars had not been known to hunt.
A Port Angeles man kills a cougar after it preyed on two goats on his property about three-fourths of a mile southeast of the town’s eastside Safeway.
In Quilcene, a bear breaks into a chicken coop, killing a chicken and mauling a turkey.
Those are just a few of the reports of close encounters with black bears and cougars on the North Olympic Peninsula that have poured into the state Fish and Wildlife Department within the past year, said Sgt. Phillip Henry, who oversees Clallam and Jefferson counties.
“We’ve had a real boost in the last year or so” of bear and cougar complaints, Henry said last week.
He estimated some 60 bear reports since October 2009, compared to a usual annual two dozen, and some 40 reports of cougars in the same period of time.
Twelve is the estimated number of cougar complaints reported on the Peninsula in a year.
Judging by the number of reports, “it’s the year of the bear,” and of the cougar, too, Henry said.
The reason for the “huge influx” of complaints may be multipronged, Henry said.
He theorized that causes could range from a cool summer resulting in less food in the higher elevations to a cyclic spike in the cougar and bear populations because of fewer hunters.
Also, he added, the Peninsula has a growing number of urbanites who have moved into the woods and who aren’t accustomed to signs of the more frightening forms of wildlife.
No bear or cougar has been reported attacking a person on the Peninsula.
Instead, reports are of slain domestic animals or signs of trespass in a yard, “destroying my bird feeder or getting into the garbage or they are on my deck looking into my sliding glass door at my chihuahua,” Henry said.
Most of the reported incidents bear encounters have been in Jefferson County, with about a dozen originating in Clallam County. Conversely, the majority of cougar complaints have been from Clallam County, Henry said.
One bear was spotted at a home near Mount Pleasant Road in Port Angeles
“The bear was at the end of my 13-foot driveway,” Roxie Baxley said.
“When my daughter saw it, she did everything she wasn’t supposed to and came right back up.”
Seeing a bear isn’t unusual, Henry said.
“We are really close to [Olympic] National Park and national forests where there are large populations of animals like bears and cougars,” Henry said.
“Sightings aren’t such a rare event.”
More bears than usual have been reported wandering into human settlements throughout the western United States.
At least 83 bears have been killed in New Mexico this year, more than three times as many as last year, and increased reports of encounters — a few of them deadly grizzly bear attacks — have been reported in Idaho and Montana.
In a rare black bear attack, Bellevue City Councilman John Chelminiak was severely injured by an 8-to-10-year-old, 149-pound female in the driveway of his vacation home near Lake Wenatchee on Sept. 17.
Black bear attacks on humans are rare.
Grizzlies are not found in the Olympics, which has only black bears.
Bears may be seeking food.
Donny Martorello, carnivore manager at the state Fish and Wildlife Department, said that there is anecdotal evidence that berries, nuts and pine cones are in short supply this year throughout the west because of poor growing conditions.
Henry said it is unknown exactly why cougar complaints have increased, but theorized that they could be following other animals who are seeking more abundant food supplies.
Henry’s theory is that bear and cougar populations both have increased, to some degree because of less hunting. Such population surges are cyclic, and self-correcting, Henry said, referring to an upswing in the cougar population in the 1990s.
Cool weather may have produced less food in the highlands, he said.
Olympic National Park Wildlife Biologist Patti Happe said the weather this year would be indicative of a lower berry supply, but that park employees haven’t reported larger numbers of bears in lowlands.
Some bears have showed up at higher-elevation campgrounds, she said.
“At the higher elevations, they are kind of getting closer than in past years, but it is hard to tell if it is just one bear with bad behavior or if several are doing that,” she said.
For more information, see the state Fish and Wildlife website at http://wdfw.wa.gov.
Signs of bear or cougar, including attacks on wildlife, can be reported to Fish and Wildlife at 1-877-933-9847.
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Reporter Paige Dickerson can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at paige.dickerson@peninsuladailynews.com.
Managing Editor/News Leah Leach can be reached at 360-417-3531 or leah.leach@peninsuladailynews.com.
The Associated Press contributed to this report