07/02/2026
“Why can’t you just relocate the bear?” We get this question a lot regarding human-bear conflicts in Vermont, and we understand why people ask! In theory, moving a bear away from the conflict site and putting it in the wilderness would solve the problem, but relocating bears doesn’t stop conflicts and isn’t good for people or bears. Here’s why:
There is nowhere in Vermont remote enough to move a habituated bear to without creating problems for someone else. It’s nice to imagine we could drop the bear in isolated woods and they would learn to search for natural foods again, but once a bear is used to looking for human food, they will keep using that knowledge unless they are taught otherwise. It’s better for the bears if we humans double down on bear-proofing before the bear ever becomes a problem. This gives bears the chance to un-learn the association between people and food and stay in their home range.
Speaking of home range, there's also nowhere in Vermont we can move a habituated bear to without potentially putting it in conflict with other bears. We have over 7,000 bears on the landscape in Vermont, and that means our landscape is well-occupied by resident bears. Moving bears is unneighborly to other bears.
In cases where they are moved, relocated bears have been shown to travel hundreds of miles and end up right back in the town where they were first captured. So, relocating a bear won't solve the original problem for very long. It will, however, force that bear to make a dangerous journey across highways and other bears' territories and create new problems for people all along the bear’s route back home.
We understand that the suggestion to relocate bears to resolve conflicts comes from a well-meaning place! But for the bears’ sakes and our neighbors’ sakes, relocation is not a good option. Everyone who lives in Vermont is responsible for preventing conflicts with black bears where they are, because everywhere (except the Islands) in Vermont is bear country.
