A bear wandering into a backyard used to be the kind of story a neighborhood told for years. In parts of the Shenandoah Valley now, it barely makes it past the group chat. That shift, from rare spectacle to routine encounter, is being tracked in detail by the state agency responsible for managing Virginia’s bear population.
A Population That Was Never Supposed to Get This Big, This Fast
Virginia is home to an estimated 17,000 to 20,000 black bears, with the heaviest concentrations in the western and southwestern part of the state, a band that includes the Shenandoah Valley and the Blue Ridge Mountains running alongside it. That’s not a fringe population clinging to remote wilderness. The Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources reports that bears now occur in at least 92 of the state’s 98 counties and cities, based on a combination of recreational sightings, hunter harvest data, roadkill reports, and DWR field observations.
What’s changed isn’t just the number of bears. It’s where they’re willing to go. DWR’s own public messaging acknowledges plainly that while a bear sighting used to be a rare treat for most Virginians, encounters between bears and people are increasing across the Commonwealth, suburban and even urban settings included.
Why Spring Sends Bears Wandering
Timing matters here, and DWR’s seasonal messaging is specific about it. As bears emerge from winter dens, young males in particular strike out on their own to find territory, and they’re capable of covering 150 to 200 miles in that search. Late spring and early summer are when that wandering behavior peaks, which lines up with when Valley residents tend to report the most unexpected encounters, a bear in a yard that’s never had one before, a bird feeder destroyed overnight, a trail camera catching something nobody expected.
The relocation of a young bear that Maryland wildlife officials moved out of a Prince George’s County backyard offers a useful, if unusual, illustration of how far a wandering bear can travel and how officials respond when one becomes too comfortable around people. The bear, nicknamed “Elden” by Herndon town officials after it climbed a tree on the town’s Elden Street and showed no sign of leaving suburbia on its own, was eventually tranquilized by the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources and relocated a second time to an undisclosed location in the Shenandoah Valley. It’s a single documented case, not a pattern, but it illustrates the calculus wildlife officials work through when a bear’s behavior crosses from wild to habituated.
The Mange Complication
Layered on top of a growing and increasingly visible bear population is a health problem that’s been tracked in this specific region longer than almost anywhere else in the state. Sarcoptic mange, caused by a microscopic mite, was first documented in Virginia bears in a narrow window between 2014 and 2018, and that early activity was concentrated specifically in the northern Shenandoah Valley. Since 2020, the disease has spread considerably. DWR’s most recent count, current as of January 2026, puts the number of confirmed mange-positive counties in Virginia at 37.
Katie Martin, a bear biologist with DWR, has explained the mechanism directly to reporters: the disease is caused by a microscopic mite that burrows under the skin, triggering intense itching, crusted skin, and hair loss in more severe cases. A mangy bear looks alarming, patchy fur, visibly distressed behavior, and that visibility is likely part of why public concern has grown alongside the actual case count. DWR’s research notes some genuine reassurance here too: many bears with mild to moderate mange survive and clear the symptoms on their own, and there’s no clear evidence from other states with longer histories of the disease that it limits bear populations over the long term.
What Wildlife Officials Want Residents to Do
The guidance from DWR is consistent and specific, not vague reassurance. If you encounter a bear, the recommended response is to stay calm, back away slowly, and avoid running, since a bear can interpret sudden flight as the start of a chase. If the bear doesn’t leave on its own, officials recommend making yourself look larger and making noise to encourage it to move along.
The more effective intervention happens before an encounter, not during one. Removing attractants, bird feeders, unsecured trash, pet food left outdoors, is the single most consistent piece of advice from wildlife biologists working this issue, since a bear that finds an easy meal near a home is far more likely to return and become genuinely habituated rather than simply passing through.
Anyone who spots a bear showing visible signs of mange is asked to document it rather than intervene: take a photograph, note the location as precisely as possible, and report it to the Virginia Wildlife Conflict Helpline at 1-855-571-9003 or by email. That reporting is record-keeping, and the raw data DWR uses to track how the disease is spreading and to decide where management resources need to go next.
None of this means the Valley has a bear crisis, though. The Valley has a bear population doing what growing populations do, expanding into edges of its range that used to feel like exclusively human territory. The animals aren’t doing anything wrong. Finding food and space where they can get it are central to what it means to be a bear. That search now crosses paths with people who live here, and wildlife officials are asking residents to meet that shift with awareness rather than alarm.
To report a bear sighting, conflict, or signs of mange, contact the Virginia Wildlife Conflict Helpline at 1-855-571-9003 or visit the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources’ Bear Awareness page.