Bear Probably Lumbered Over From Va.

Montgomery Unlikely as Final Stop

The black bear spotted three times over the past two weeks in residential neighborhoods in Montgomery County is probably a Virginia transplant looking for a new place to live after being kicked out of its mother's den, wildlife officials say.

Bob Beyer, associate director for game management at the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, said staff members are monitoring the bear's whereabouts daily and remain optimistic it will find a new home on its own -- most likely outside county limits.

"Montgomery County is a very nice place to live in, but not for a bear," Beyer said.

This is typically the time of year when young male bears strike out on their own, he said. The bear was seen once last week in Rockville and twice this week in North Bethesda.

The black bear population is on the rise in Maryland, Virginia and in other parts of the country, wildlife experts say. Most of Maryland's black bears tend to congregate in the western part of the state, although the population is growing in Frederick County. Beyer said there are about 500 bears in Western Maryland and about 650 statewide.

Maryland's black bear population continues to thrive, despite environmentalists' fears that the animals would become endangered when the state lifted its ban on bear hunting two years ago, Beyer said.

He added, however, that the Montgomery bear probably swam or waded across the Potomac River from Virginia. If it had come from farther north in Maryland, he said, the first sighting would not have been in Montgomery.

This has been a big year for black bear sightings in some parts of Virginia, but none has been spotted in Northern Virginia, said Jerry Sims, regional manger for the state Department of Game and Inland Fisheries. He recalled past sightings in Northern Virginia of a bear at Fair Oaks Mall in Fairfax County and one that kept crossing the Capital Beltway into McLean.

"He's probably a lonesome fellow who's just wandering," Sims said of the Montgomery bear.

Experts say most bears, particular black bears, are not likely to attack unless they are agitated. Beyer said that unless the bear poses a threat to public safety, wildlife officials will probably leave it alone because it's been the Department of Natural Resources' experience that attempting to tranquilize and capture a bear can do more harm than good. Depending on the size or nature of the bear, the tranquilizer could take up to an hour to take effect and might cause the animal to become more dangerous or confused, he said.

"Most of the time they realize, 'Hey, this is a little overcrowded for me,' and they head back upstream," said Rob Gibbs, natural resources manager for Montgomery's Parks Department.

Beyer said folks who spot a bear in their yard should "enjoy the moment," but he advised against trying to pet or feed the animal. "It is a rare event for people to see a bear in the wild; it truly is a wonderful moment to see it in your yard," he said.