To prevent damage to your home by hungry bears, keep household garbage out of their reach until trash pickup day. Typically, children returning to school and Southeastern Conference football heralds the arrival of fall.
We know the leaves have started turning and cooler weather is on its way. Everything else is not what it typically is. The shorter days and cooler weather prompt black bears bodies to shift into hyperphagia, or excessive eating.
They begin to store fat for winter. Black Bears are opportunist feeders. They will eat almost anything that comes in front of them. Sometimes, it gets them in trouble.
In the fall, the primary food they depend on are hard mast crops such as acorns, hickory nuts, walnuts and pecans. The acorn is the primary hard mast crop that the black bear currently depends on in Appalachia Georgia. Full-grown acorns will become evident by late summer. Hickory nuts and walnuts can only be eaten by adult bears because sub-adult bears do not have their adult teeth yet.
Oak trees begin acorn production at 20β50 years of age and the chance of an acorn becoming a full oak tree is , White oak trees can produce mature acorns annually within 3 months.
