Black bears may be especially on the hunt this season for high calorie foods, such as food scraps in household trash and bird seed from outdoor bird feeders, due to localized scarcities of acorns and other tree nuts, which are an important black bear food source known as ''mast.'' Mast production, especially the acorn crop, is typically cyclical, and this year's scarcity follows two very plentiful mast years.

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