AUGUSTA – More than 600 Mainers have called the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife to report problems with black bears this year, state officials announced Thursday.

The figure is about twice that of previous estimates, but the increase is related more to incomplete counts in the past than to any increase in actual complaints, said Maine Warden Service Col. Thomas Santaguida.

As of Oct. 13, when the count stopped, Maine wardens had taken 620 bear-related calls, he said. Calls could range from farmers who saw bears killing their livestock to homeowners who suspected bears of knocking over their garbage cans.

Wardens always start by offering a caller advice on how to keep from attracting bears. But Santaguida could not say Thursday how many of the 620 calls required further action such as moving a bear or killing a bear that posed a particular danger to the public.

Those numbers simply haven’t been compiled yet, he said, adding that he had to shift around limited funds just to hire someone to count the number of nuisance complaints which were released Thursday. The numbers had been requested by groups on both sides of a November referendum to ban hunting bears with bait, traps or hounds.

Game wardens and biologists estimate that 2004 was a typical year for bear complaints. Although numbers alternate on schedule with biennial beechnut crops, the tally has remained between 200 and 300 annual calls over the past five years.

This year’s boost to 620 is a result of a change in state policy that requires game wardens to keep records of the calls they take while they are off-duty. Had these evening and weekend reports of nuisance bears been recorded in the past, the average probably would have run closer to the 600 calls recorded this year, Santaguida said.

“I’m certain these [bear-human interactions] were going on before; we just weren’t capturing them,” he said.

Central record keeping on nuisance animal issues and the state’s response, known as “animal damage control,” has never been a priority for the department, as wardens scattered across the state often acted locally. However, recent statewide battles over coyote snaring and bear baiting have revealed a demand for this information.

With the referendum to ban bear baiting, trapping and hunting with dogs looming, DIF&W made keeping good bear records a priority this year, Santaguida said, adding that he hopes to institute statewide databases for nuisance complaints during his tenure as head of the Maine Warden Service, should funding become available.

Ken Elowe, director of the bureau of resource management for DIF&W, said Thursday his department predicts the state’s bear population could explode, reaching 35,000 animals in just five years, if the referendum passes, with nuisance bear problems increasing accordingly.

“That’s a level much higher than Maine citizens will want or tolerate,” he said.

However, DIF&W’s population model relies upon a survey conducted by the group formed to oppose the referendum, Maine’s Fish and Wildlife Conservation Coalition. The survey relied upon a small number of handpicked bear hunters and guides to forecast that 90 percent of bear hunters would stop hunting in Maine if the referendum passed – an estimate that statisticians have called unreliable.

And even if DIF&W predictions are valid, animal population numbers represent only half the equation for nuisance complaints. Human populations and density levels also play a role.

Compared to other states, Maine’s 620 complaints for a population of 23,000 bears is not unusually high. In Vermont, more than 700 nuisance calls typically result from just 3,500 to 4,500 bears, according to state wildlife officials. In New Jersey, more than 660 calls were received by mid-September of this year, with a population of just 1,500 black bears, according to a department spokeswoman.

New Jersey held its first bear hunt in many years in fall of 2003, while Vermont has long permitted bear hunting with dogs and by hunters who stalk the animals in the forest. What these two states have in common – which distinguishes them from Maine – is a human population moving into new housing developments in bear territory.

Here, the migration has been slower, and population growth – particularly in parts of the state where most of the bears live – has been stagnant.

Neither side in the current political debate has made its own predictions about bear behavior. Maine’s Fish and Wildlife Conservation Council has deferred to DIF&W biologists. And Maine Citizens for Fair Bear Hunting, the group behind the referendum, has cited stable bear populations in states that have banned baiting, but added that precise predictions for Maine are impossible.