Some basic safety measures should keep your goats safe from black bears.
Black bears are omnivorous, unlike grizzlies—they are able to subsist on grass, roots, tubers, berries as well as proteins like fish and insects.
A large animal like a goat would probably represent a needlessly difficult prey.
All this said, if you have black bears in your area, you should nevertheless take safety and caution very seriously.
Let’s look further into this.
Will black bears kill my goats?
First thing I would say is that you should always exercise the utmost caution.
The point I hope to make in this article is that black bears are far from a particularly great threat to your goats, but you should nonetheless always act out of caution.
In general, though, black bears do not attack animals the size of goats.
Black bears are omnivorous, so they have a pretty wide range of available foods to choose from.
They do eat other animals, but usually nothing the size of goats.
Be wary of things like droughts, or any other reason why there might be a natural shortage of food.
This could lead black bears to become more desperate, and to start preying on goats and livestock.
Like I say, black bears attacking livestock is not unheard of.
But it is usually only in extreme circumstances, e.g., drought, and because the goats were not sufficiently protected.
So, while you really don’t have a lot to worry about, there is still, plainly, sufficient reason to take major steps to protect your goats against black bears.
Let’s look into how to do that.
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How do I protect my goats from bears?
There are a few ways you can do so, and with all or even some of these methods combined, you should have no problem with bears anywhere near your property.
Firstly, always keep your property and homestead clean.
One thing that will attract bears is the smell of food, whether it’s in the garbage, whether it’s from your goats’ droppings, if they smell something, they will come.
Clean up thoroughly.
Make sure the fencing is tall and secure.
Electric fencing is a good option, as bears are known to climb fencing.
Related – Best Fencing For Goats
Make sure your goats have an enclosed shelter they can go into.
Bears will have a difficult time breaking into a locked barn.
Lighting deterrents can be a big help, too.
LED deterrents keep bears away from the parts of your property that are well enough lit.
Finally, one of the best things you can do is to get guard dogs.
You might think dogs wouldn’t be much good against a bear, but bears generally are much more docile than we think. especially black bears.
If there are guard dogs near your goats, bears will almost definitely stay away.
So, what do black bears eat?
What do black bears eat?
As I said, black bears are omnivorous.
They can eat a wide variety of foods, and this is one of the reasons they’re able to survive so well in varied environments.
For the most part, they eat a lot of plant matter—berries, plants, roots, tubers, even tree bark and leaves.
They also like to eat honey, nuts and fruit.
They will prey on some animals, too.
Mostly they won’t eat anything larger than an insect, and they are known to enjoy raiding termite mounds.
But as you can see, black bears mostly subsist on a plant-based diet.
This is hard for many of us to imagine, but black bears really are not primarily predators.
Do black bears kill wild goats?
Bears generally stay away from places where they can sense a lot of activity, such as from humans.
So, the chances of them attacking your domestic goats are already reduced because of this.
But what about wild goats?
The same rules apply, really.
If there is a severe drought and there is very little food to be found, a black bear may attempt to catch a wild goat.
But they would not do so otherwise, under normal circumstances.
The other factor to consider is that black bears just aren’t very good hunters.
They aren’t used to it, so trying to bring down a large animal like a goat isn’t even guaranteed to work for them.
As long as you take some basic safety measures, then, black bears really shouldn’t be a problem for your goats.
We have an image of bears that, even in the case of the most dangerous, still is not completely fair on the animal.
Bears of course can be dangerous, but for the most part, they’d really rather just leave you alone.
Black bears in particular simply are not big game hunters, and prefer to forage around for a variety of smaller things.