Here's a study that was done regarding "Homing of Bears" Mike:
http://www.bearbiology.com/fileadmin/tpl/Downloads/URSUS/Vol_3/Beeman_Pelton_Vol_3.pdfThe summary excerpt:
"From 1967 to 1974, 76 nuisance black bears were moved to other parts of the
Park. Most nuisance bears were males (87 percent). Bears less than 4. 5 years
old comprised 20 percent of the nuisance animals. There was no significant
difference between the ability of inexperienced adults and inexperienced juven-
iles to home. Within the range of distances that bears were moved (5. 8 to
64. 8 km), there was a significant difference between homing and distance trans-
planted, i.e. fewer homing with greater distances moved.
Experienced male bears were significantly more likely to home and homed in
less time than inexperienced males. Bears released on the periphery of the
Park were significantly less likely to home than bears released in the central
part of the Park.
Bears seem to be strongly motivated to home. A bear's home range probably
provides psychic needs as well as physical ones. They likely find their way
by random wanderings combined with learning and memory of areas previously
traversed. Other means of navigation were not tested in this study.
Creating conditions that reduce the amount of unnatural food available to bears
is probably the most basic management tool for eliminating the transformation of
'wild' bears to nuisance animals. Selection of release sites is also an important
consideration in handling nuisance bears. "