The Wall Street Journal - 14.11.2019

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. Thursday, November 14, 2019 |A

compared with fewer than

1,000 in 1980. Bear hunting is

allowed in many rural parts of

the mountain region, with 1,

bears harvested in 2017.

For centuries, humans have

taken over territory inhabited

by wildlife, whether coyotes

out West or alligators in Flor-

ida. Here, rather than trying to

remove the animals, people are

seeking to coexist with them.

The stakes are high. Last year,

in a community 10 miles east of

Asheville, a woman walking her

dog was badly injured by a

mother bear scrounging for

garbage. The bear was eutha-

nized by wildlife officers.

Asheville is unique in the

Southeast for the size of its

bear population, and residents

have shown great affection for

the animals, celebrating them

in books and on bumper stick-

ers. The Urban/Suburban Bear

Study, started by researchers

with North Carolina State Uni-

versity and the North Carolina

Wildlife Resources Commission,

set out to see if city bears were

as healthy as their country

counterparts. From 2014 to

2018, the project fitted 245

bears with GPS-connected col-

lars to track movement, sur-

vival and reproduction.

Researchers said they were

surprised to find that Ashe-

ville was a great bear habitat.

Male yearlings commonly

weigh over 200 pounds, and

female yearlings over 100

pounds, compared with rural

yearling bears, which weigh

from 45 to 85 pounds. Repro-

ductive rates were robust, and

life expectancy was high, as

bears were less likely than ru-

ral bears to be killed by a

hunter or hit by a vehicle.

Asheville, population 92,000,

is near two national parks, ad-

jacent to the Blue Ridge Park-

way and on a ridgeline, making

it a natural highway for bears.

The state’s rural eastern part

has the largest percentage of

bears, but the Asheville metro

area represented 58% of calls

ASHEVILLE, N.C.—The pop-
ulation is booming in this
mountain city—for both hu-
mans and bears.
Hundreds of black bears are
building dens within Ashe-
ville’s city limits, roaming
streets based on garbage-
pickup schedules and scaveng-
ing in backyards for bird seed.
Bears are particularly hungry
this time of year, consuming
as many as 20,000 calories a
day in preparation for snug-
gling in their dens from late
December to late March.
Fearing inter-species
clashes, researchers with the
Urban/Suburban Bear Study
plan to coach 2,000 residents in
two Asheville neighborhoods
on such measures as securing
garbage in bear-proof contain-
ers, cleaning grills after use,
and using bird feeders only in
winter when bears are inactive.
Researchers say it is better for
both man and beast if bears
nibble on acorns in the woods
behind a home rather than lick
yogurt containers in the recy-
cling bin in the driveway.
“Bears are just doing what
bears do; they want food,” said
Chris DePerno, a North Caro-
lina State University biologist
and study leader. “Wildlife
management is largely people
management.”
Asheville has grown nearly
40% in the past 20 years, with
retirees and remote workers
seeking an arts-and-outdoors
culture in the western Blue
Ridge Mountains. At the same
time, after decades of conser-
vation effort, bears now num-
ber more than 4,000 in the sur-
rounding mountain region,

JOHN FORSYTH

©D.YURMAN

davidyurman.com 888 dyurman

©Belperron, L

LC. All

rights rese

rved.

MODERN, BEFORE THE WORLD WAS

745FIFTHAVENUE,SUITE1210,NYC

212 702 9040•BELPERRON.COM

DOUBLE WAVE PENDANT EARCLIPS

22K“VIRGIN”GOLDANDPEARL,$21,

about human-bear interaction

in 2017, the wildlife commission

says. It is increasingly common

for the commission to hear

complaints about bear-pet en-

counters, researchers said.

“You’re going to see more

people living in more histori-

cally rural settings,” Dr. DeP-

erno said. “You’re going to have

more human-wildlife interac-

tion, whether it’s deer, bears,

copperheads, what have you.”

Tom and Janet Winemiller,

who are newcomers in their

Town Mountain neighborhood,

were drawn from Ohio to

Asheville three years ago.

They spend hours watching

security-video footage of the

bears that traipse through

their yard, and Ms. Winemiller

said she keeps her adult chil-

dren up-to-date on family fa-

vorites Larry and Bob.

“We’d heard there were

bears, but nobody told us it

would be daily,” said Ms. Wine-

miller. “Nobody told us it’d be

out in the front yard.”

risk of infection.

“Our nation must stop refer-

ring to a coming post-antibiotic

era—it’s already here,” CDC di-

rector Robert Redfield said in

an introductory letter to the re-

port released Wednesday.

The report identified 18

U.S. NEWS

bacteria and fungi of concern,

and new bugs are emerging

rapidly, the CDC said. It in-

cluded a “watch list” of patho-

gens identified elsewhere in

the world, such as a drug-re-

sistant form of Bordetella per-

tussis , bacteria that cause

whooping cough.

“The problem of antibiotic

resistance is worse than we

previously thought,” said Mi-

chael Craig, the CDC’s senior

adviser for antibiotic resis-

tance. Someone in the U.S. de-

velops an antibiotic-resistant

infection every 11 seconds, and

someone dies every 15 min-

utes, he said in an interview.

The new estimates include

223,900 cases, including 12,

deaths a year from Clostrid-

ioides difficile bacteria. Those

bacteria aren’t drug-resistant,

but infections with them are

fueled by use of antibiotics.

There is some good news,

Mr. Craig said. The number of

annual deaths from drug-resis-

tant bacteria and fungi has de-

clined 18% since 2013, exclud-

ing the deaths from C. difficile.

That improvement is due

largely to steps hospitals have

taken to prevent the spread of

drug-resistant bugs, he said.

Now, 84% of U.S. hospitals

have a program in place to use

antibiotics more judiciously,

following CDC guidelines, ac-

cording to the report.

Still, Mr. Craig said, more-

dangerous bugs are spreading

outside hospitals. They include

drug-resistant gonorrhea and

urinary-tract infections caused

by bacteria with enzymes,

called extended-spectrum

beta-lactamases, or ESBLs,

that break down and destroy

many common antibiotics in-

cluding penicillin. Urinary-

tract infections caused by

those bacteria can be life-

threatening, Mr. Craig said.

New pathogens are also

making their way to the U.S.

Candida auris , a drug-resistant

pathogen first identified in Asia

in 2009, has quickly spread

around the world, causing life-

threatening infections, the re-

port noted, listing it as one of

five “urgent threats.”

Drug-resistant bacteria and
fungi, along with heavy use of
antibiotics, fuel nearly 3.1 mil-
lion infections with 48,
deaths a year in the U.S., ac-
cording to a new federal re-
port that warns the toll from
so-called superbugs is greater
than previously known.
The findings from the Cen-
ters for Disease Control and
Prevention, based on data
from millions of patient elec-
tronic health records and
other sources, update a 2013
report in which the agency
sounded an alarm about the
dangers of these bugs, some of
which are resistant to many or
most antibiotics.
Antibiotic-resistant bacteria
and fungi, once confined mostly
in hospitals, are spreading ag-
gressively now in other health-
care facilities and communities,
the CDC warned. Doctors regu-
larly struggle to find antibiotics
that can effectively treat pa-
tients, and to operate on or pro-
vide cancer care to patients at

BYBETSYMCKAY

CDC Warns on Superbugs

C.difficile

Staph

ESBL-producing

enterobacteriaceae

Enterococcus

Streptococcuspneumoniae

Antibiotic-resistant threats,

proliferating in hospitals and

communities, cause more than

48,000 deaths each year.

Estimatedannualdeaths

fromtopinfections

Source: Centers for Disease Control and

Prevention

12,

10,

9,

5,

3,

BYVALERIEBAUERLEIN

City Bears Furry Denizens No Grudges

Bears are a common sight in Asheville, N.C. Wildlife specialists

are educating people how to keep the animals from their homes.

Black-bearcomplaintsin

NorthCarolina

Source: North Carolina Wildlife Resources

Commision

Note: A new toll-free helpline contributed to

2017 spike

1,

0

300

2000 ’05 ’10 ’

600

900