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03.06.2014 | Wayne MacCallum, left, talks to media as Governor Deval Patrick holds two black bear cubs during the 2013 study.

(Michael Beswick | The Republican)

BELCHERTOWN — What a difference a day makes.

One day you're with the leader of the free world in Connecticut, talking about raising the federal minimum wage so the nation's lowest-paid workers can survive. The next day you're scrambling through the snow-covered woods of Belchertown in search of bears.

Baby bears, that is.

And the guy who'll be surveying bear cubs with MassWildlife officials in Belchertown on Thursday is Gov. Deval Patrick, who just a day earlier joined Barack Obama at Central Connecticut State University as the president discussed such policy initiatives as elevating the minimum hourly pay rate for people.

Patrick and wildlife biologists will set out from the McLaughlin Fish Hatchery, 90 East St., at about 9:45 a.m.

The state began studying its bear population way back in 1970, when there were only about 100 of the large omnivores in Massachusetts. Today, however, that population is estimated at well over 3,000 bears, whose favorite territory tends to be forested areas west of the Connecticut River.

That said, the bear population continues to spread through Worcester County, with bear sightings as far east as suburban Boston and as far south as Cape Cod, where a wayward bear became somewhat of a tourist attraction in 2012.

In recent years, sightings have become more common in suburban Springfield, including the city's eastern suburbs. Meanwhile, Northampton sightings have become so common that the city could some day add "Bear City" to its list of nicknames.