New Mexico’s black bears left the high country to search for food because of heat and drought. This led to more bear sightings in towns and cities across the state in 2026.
However, New Mexico has already killed more black bears in conflicts with people this year than in any previous full year on record. And the year is not over yet.
From April 1 through September 8, game officers and private landowners killed 254 black bears after the animals broke into homes, preyed on livestock or otherwise came into conflict with people.
The toll is nearly four times the 25-year annual average and has already eclipsed the previous record of 242 bears killed during the entire 2011-12 license year.
Hunters have killed another 253 bears since the hunting season opened in August, while at least 41 more have died on roads or in other accidents.
The conflict deaths are particularly concentrated in Bear Zone 4, the high country stretching from Santa Fe through the Pecos Wilderness to Mora. In this zone, 69 bears have been killed after conflicts with people.
Nick Forman, who heads the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish’s bear and cougar program, says communities built against the foothills and the lingering effects of the Hermit’s Peak/Calf Canyon burn scar, hit hard by this year’s drought, are intensifying the problem.
And once a bear becomes a problem, relocation doesn’t guarantee its safety. Records show that more than four bears have been killed for every one moved this year.
Even relocation can be perilous. A Wisconsin study tracking more than 1,200 problem bears found that only about half survived any given year after being translocated, which is far below normal survival rates.
New Mexico is home to an estimated 9,000 black bears. Forman says the population has been stable or slowly increased over the past decade. The conflict deaths therefore account for about 3 percent of the state’s estimated bear population.
Wildlife officials say the real culprit is not an explosion in bears, but a shortage of food. In recent years, Forman’s team found dens containing “super, super fat” bears following a bumper piñon crop. Virtually every female was carrying cubs.
The punishing conditions of 2026 partly drive bears from hibernation to find scant green grass. A late monsoon delayed the prickly-pear crop that normally becomes an important food source in July.
But Forman believes the current invasion may be temporary. “When they come out of the dens in spring,” he said, looking ahead to next year, “they’re going to come out to mountains that have a bunch of green grass out there for them, and a bunch of foods, and they’re going to just completely forget about the grocery stores that they found out in town.”
That hope hinges partly on forecasts calling for a powerful El Niño, and heavier mountain snowfall could replenish soil moisture, produce abundant spring forage and help restore the berry and mast crops that traditionally keep bears away from human settlements.
A self-described member of “Team Bear,” Forman expects encounters with humans to ease as acorns and juniper berries become available this fall.
The wildlife population, estimated at thousands, appear to be resilient, however, until weather, food supplies, and human development collide. And this year, New Mexico’s hungry bears have been turning up almost everywhere.
