Neighbor

June 10, 2023

I received a post today on my local Nextdoor app that identified a new neighbor who had moved into our area.  Our subdivision abuts the hills and wooded area along the northeast side of town and is named for the small creek that winds throughout.  It is not uncommon to periodically receive posts as someone either joins the local app or moves into the neighborhood and wants to say “Hi!” to introduce themselves.  What made this post different was it was not posted by the neighbor, but instead by another who spotted them in the community.  This new neighbor did not stop to say “Hi!”, but instead was just going about their own business.  The post accompanying their photo said, “Shocked to see this!”  When I clicked on the small photo in the corner of the site, I saw the large American black bear (Ursus americanus) who had been identified in one of the trees near our house.  While I was not shocked by the appearance of this new neighbor, I was glad it was in someone else’s yard.       

When I checked online, I found that Nextdoor Holdings, Inc. is an American company which operates a hyperlocal social networking service to connect with your neighbor.  Nextdoor was founded in 2008 and is based in San Francisco, California.  The company launched throughout the US in October of 2011, in July of 2012 raised US$18.6 million in venture capital funding, and by February of 2014 had over 80 employees.  Users of the app are required to submit real names and addresses to the website, but these are not verified for accuracy.  Advertising was added to the platform, including real estate advertising, in 2017, and this includes posts inside users’ feeds about business services and products.  Nextdoor has acquired other social network services (Streetlife in the UK, and Hoodline in the US), and became a publicly traded company in November of 2021.  As of May of 2023, this neighbor connection service is available in 11 countries. 

Historically, it would have been the humans who spread as a new neighbor into the territory of the American black bear.  Historically the bear occupied most of North America’s forested regions, but now they are limited to sparsely settled, forested areas.  The current range of black bears in the US is constant throughout most of the Northeast and the Appalachian Mountains, in the northern Midwest, the Rocky Mountain region, the West Coast, and Alaska.  The bears are increasingly fragmented in other regions but seem to have expanded their range during the last decade.  Thousands of black bears are hunted legally across North America (200 per year in Arkansas), some poached illegally, and collisions with vehicles claim more lives annually.  California has an estimated 25,000-35,000 American black bears, making it the largest population of the species in the contiguous United States.  Mexico is the only country where the American black bear is classified as “endangered”.  Except for the rare confrontation with an adult brown bear (Ursus arctos) or a gray wolf (Canis lupus) pack, adult American black bears have little natural predation.  Today, black bear fatalities are mainly attributed to humans. 

Thoughts:  Black bears were eradicated from Arkansas early in the 20th century, but the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission reintroduced 254 black bears from Minnesota and Manitoba, Canada, into the Ouachita and Ozark Mountains between 1958 and 1968.  Now the number of black bears in the state is increasing.  The return of black bears to Arkansas is historically significant and symbolizes the revival of the wilderness, even as it provides increased recreational opportunities.  Some fear the return of black bears because of potential loss of livestock and pet depredation.  Black bears rarely attack humans.  Our neighbor bear is probably a young male searching for a safe home.  If so, he deserves to be left alone.  Act for all.  Change is coming and it starts with you.