Spotted a bear lately? You're not alone—why sightings are on the rise

By the time Kim Ring arrived at her neighbors' yard that spring afternoon in 2022, their chicken coop was a flattened pile of lumber surrounded by feathers. The poultry had been raided by a bear. At the neighbor's request, Ring and her husband headed into the woods abutting their home in the rural Massachusetts town of Ware, in the hopes of finding any fluffy survivors. What they encountered instead was a bear with her two cubs in a tree—the mother bear downing one of their neighbor's chickens.