FEMALE brown bears with cubs seem to hang around near people’s homes. It may be a way to avoid males, who would force the females to abandon their young earlier.

Joanie Van de Walle at Sherbrooke University in Canada and her colleagues studied brown bears living in a rolling landscape of managed forests, bogs and lakes in Sweden. The area was dotted with houses and cabins.

Female brown bears keep their cubs for 1.5 or 2.5 years. A female who keeps offspring for 2.5 years can bestow …