Wire reporting: (AP, via WKYC)

Ohio recorded its highest annual total of black bear sightings in 2025, according to WKYC and AP, which both ran Lucy Bryan of The Reporting Project citing the Ohio Division of Wildlife’s 2026 monitoring report^1,2.

The report, as described in those accounts, said the division received 537 sightings in 69 of Ohio’s 88 counties in 2025, up from 370 in 55 counties in 2024 and 260 in 49 counties in 2023^1,2. Over the prior 10 years the average was 239 reports a year^1,2. More than 1,500 sightings have been reported to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources since 2022^1,2.

Black bears were treated as gone from Ohio by the mid-1800s after forest clearing and hunting, the stories said, and the species was moved from extirpated to state endangered in 1995 after tracking began in 1993^1,2. Of 4,793 sightings logged since then, nearly a third fell between 2022 and 2025^1,2.

ODNR wildlife biologist Katie Dennison said growing populations in West Virginia and Pennsylvania are expanding into Ohio^1,2. The 2026 report said most Ohio bears are dispersing or transient males that likely do not stay long^1,2. Mariela Gantchoff, a University of Dayton wildlife ecologist, said young males typically leave their mothers’ ranges and often have high mortality^1,2.

Dennison also said some of the recent jump reflects cameras and phones, and that many Coshocton County reports traced to one young male, while she still saw signs of growth and of females^1,2. The report cited consistent evidence of reproducing females in the northeast, including sows with cubs in Ashtabula County in most years since 2016 and in Geauga County in 2023–2025, plus limited sow-and-cub reports in Meigs and Noble counties^1,2.

Gantchoff’s team has collared eight black bears in Ohio since 2024 and was monitoring five at the time of the story, and is asking residents to report sightings, tracks and scat through ODNR’s wildlife reporting system^1,2.