The Return of the Bear
Long before canoe liveries lined the river, mountain bikes carved through forest trails, and cabins dotted the hillsides, the forests of Mohican belonged to wildlife that shaped Ohio’s wilderness — including the American black bear.
Black bears once roamed across all of Ohio. Native peoples and early settlers regularly encountered them. But by the mid-1800s, widespread logging, land clearing, and unregulated hunting eliminated bears from the state entirely. For more than a century, Ohio’s forests stood without one of their original inhabitants.
Now, slowly and quietly, bears are coming back.
Wildlife biologists say black bears from neighboring Pennsylvania and West Virginia have naturally expanded into Ohio as forests regenerated and habitat improved. Most resident bears remain concentrated in northeastern and southeastern Ohio, especially near the Pennsylvania border, where female bears with cubs — the clearest evidence of permanent populations — have now been documented.
More importantly for Mohican, bears are no longer just an Appalachian Ohio story.
In June 2025, an adult male black bear weighing approximately 246 pounds was struck by a vehicle in Richland County near Lexington — less than 30 miles west of Mohican. Wildlife officials confirmed it was the first documented black bear in Richland County since 1999. Officials also reported that bears had recently been moving through nearby Morrow, Delaware, and Licking counties.
Licking County, southeast of Mohican, recorded its first confirmed black bear sighting in more than two decades in 2025. Wildlife officials noted the animal was likely a young male traveling long distances looking for territory and mates — exactly how black bears naturally expand their range.
Even central Ohio has seen surprise visitors. In 2023, a black bear was confirmed on residential camera footage near Three Creeks Metro Park in Franklin County near Columbus — the first confirmed sighting there in nearly twenty years.
The Ohio Division of Wildlife has tracked black bear observations since 1993. Confirmed sightings have steadily increased, reaching record levels in recent years and spreading across more counties than ever before. Ohio wildlife experts now estimate 50–100 black bears are living within the state, with numbers slowly growing.
Mohican itself has not yet become bear country. No established resident population has been documented in Mohican State Forest or the Loudonville area.
But when you consider Mohican’s miles of connected woodlands, river corridors, steep ravines, abundant food sources, and location between expanding wildlife territories, it becomes increasingly difficult to imagine bears not returning someday.
For Mohican, it may no longer be a question of if black bears return.
Only when.
(Be the first person to see a bear in the area while riding a Bear Bait bike!)
