Beware of Bear? Long-Term Spatio-Temporal Patterns of Human-Bear Conflict in Connecticut.

In this study, we examine the spatio-temporal patterns of citizen-reported human-bear conflict (HBC) from 2002 to 2022 and use the Forest-Based and Boosted Classification (FBBC) technique to assess the significance of several factors in the occurrence of HBC. Our analysis reveals a significant increase in HBC incidents over the study period, with the fewest conflicts in 2002 (217) and the most in 2022 (4455). These were concentrated in northwestern Connecticut, particularly eastern Litchfield County and western Hartford County.