Rick Koval and I were deep in a Rice Township swamp last weekend hoping to find a marbled salamander for the herp series.
After checking a few vernal pools, we trekked along an old logging road that was reclaimed by the swampy ground. As I climbed over the trunk of a maple tree that had fallen over the trail, I heard a branch break.
Straddling the log, I glanced to my left and saw two bears, a mother and a cub, on their hind legs pulling down branches from a spicebush.
Northeastern Pennsylvania has "a lot of bears," says Tom Venesky, and residents should get used to living with them. "We moved into their habitat, not vice versa. Now it’s up to us to do our part to coexist with black bears." He suggests bringing bird feeders in at night and keeping trash stored securely until the day of pick-up.
The bears were feasting on spicebush berries and they were so engrossed in the meal they had no idea that Koval and I were only 20 feet away.
I watched for a few seconds until the sow bear looked at us and stopped. The cub followed suit and, for some reason, darted directly toward me. Not wanting to get in between mother and cub, I climbed off the log and walked backwards toward Koval. The cub panicked and climbed a tree next to where I had been. The sow bulldozed through the brush in the opposite direction and the cub quickly slid down the tree and joined its mother.
They weren’t the only bears I encountered last Saturday, but the mother and cub feasting on spicebush berries were a complete opposite from the four bears I saw earlier that day.
Driving along a backroad that morning, I saw a series of stark black shapes ahead. Right away I suspected bears, but something didn’t look right. I counted six black shapes and wondered why a half dozen bears were standing in the road.
As I drove closer I could tell two of the shapes were black trash bags — but the other four, sure enough, were bears.
A mother and three cubs had dragged the bags of trash onto the road and promptly shredded them open, looking for an easy meal. When I drove up to them they reluctantly walked into the woods, hesitant to leave the trash.
Six bears in one day. It was enough to convince me that an article that ran last Sunday on this page about avoiding conflicts with bears was timely.
Apparently, I’m not the only one that has seen a bevy of bears recently.
Residents in a Fairview Township neighborhood are concerned about an enormous bruin frequenting their streets to raid trash cans.
Some of the residents in the neighborhood are concerned for the safety of children and at least one resident even fears that it’s only a matter of time before the bruin mauls and kills someone. They can’t even fathom the idea that a bear will wander out of the woods and into a neighborhood.
Not to be rude… but get used to it. This is Northeastern Pennsylvania and there are a lot of bears here. They were here long before our roads and developments and, aside from the few that are taken during bear season, they aren’t going anywhere.
There is no record of a Pennsylvania black bear killing a human, so the sight of one isn’t reason to panic.
If a bear is seen in your neighborhood it’s because there are woods (bear habitat) nearby and something is attracting the animal to the area. Usually that attractant is trash cans or bird feeders. Put your trash out the day of pickup and bring the bird feeders in at night. Take away the attractant and the bear will have no reason to enter your neighborhood.
Living with bears is part of living in Northeastern Pennsylvania. We moved into their habitat, not vice versa. Now it’s up to us to do our part to coexist with black bears. (Visit www.pgc.state.pa.us for more information on avoiding bear conflicts.)
