ARLINGTON, Va. (7News) — Arlington County Animal Control said there were several more sightings on Monday of a bear spotted over the weekend in North Arlington.
On Sunday, the Animal Welfare League of Arlington said it received several reports of a bear in Arlington near Windy Run Park. A resident of the Riverwood neighborhood said the bear ran right over his driveway. Then on Monday, Arlington County Animal Control told 7News they received several reports of bear sightings near the Rivercrest neighborhood not far from the Chain Bridge about two miles northwest of the weekend sightings.
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Deputy Animal Control officer Spencer Murray told 7News the black bear is likely looking for a home territory away from other bear dens, but in the process, has wandered into the D.C. suburbs.
“Bears can travel great distances when they’re looking for a new home site and area,” Murray said in an interview. “Specifically, males will stay with their mother for about a year and a half, and then they’ll take off in search of their own area usually in the second spring of their life.”
Unlike a recent incident in Northeast D.C. in which a bear was tranquilized and released back into the wild in Maryland, Murray said the best option, in this case, is to let the bear find its way back to more rural areas. Since it seems to be on the move to the northwest, Murray said that’s a good sign.
“We do tend to let them run their course and try to stay out of the way while they make their way through,” Murray said.
Murray said residents can take several steps to encourage the bear to head back to better habitat:
- Secure trash cans tightly, possibly even using bungee cords around them, and leave them in the garage if you have one.
- Take down bird feeders.
- Don’t feed pets outdoors, and if you do, only put the food out for a short period of time.
Murray explained that although black bear attacks are incredibly rare, don’t approach the bear if you see it – it’s best to stay inside.
“We always advise that people don’t leave their small pets or children outside unattended even in a fenced-in backyard, just for everyone’s safety,” he said. “For all wildlife, we don’t want any sort of interactions like that.”
But he added that black bears generally want nothing to do with people.
“They’re not looking for interactions with humans. They are trying to stay away from us, and they do tend to be scared of humans, which is exactly what we want them to be,” he said.
Between the bear spotted in Northeast D.C. on June 9 and a bear that made its way through several Montgomery County towns earlier this spring, it may seem like black bears are making their way into the suburbs more often. But Murray said he doesn’t think anything unusual is going on except for there being more and more cameras in use to capture images of the bears.
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“People have Ring cameras, people have their phones that they’re recording with, so the exposure that we’re seeing is likely just due to us having those pieces of technology,” Murray said.