Regardless of snow, one big mammal is back at it in Northern Michigan.
The Michigan Department of Natural Resources says bears are on the move and they are hungry.
Calls about bears getting into things like bird feeders and garbage start coming into the DNR every spring.
DNR wildlife technician Katie Keen says bird seed and trash make for easy food rewards while other sources are still slim pickings.
If they find a place where food is always available – they’ll remember.
"The great thing about wildlife is their main focus is food, so by removing that food reward, which means everytime they visit your property, they are getting rewarded with something in their belly," Keen says. "If we can remove that, given time, when they visit and there is nothing there, they will move on."
The DNR says never intentionally feed bears you see.
Anyone having problems with bears several weeks after removing accessible trash and bird feeders, contact your nearest DNR office.
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