When Shecara West was told there was a black bear seen near her home in the Langley Park neighborhood in Prince George’s County, Maryland, on Monday, her first reaction was to “Get the burgers off the grill — get the burgers and dogs off the grill and get the kids in the house!”
West and her husband Derek live just down the street from where the bear was seen taking a nap in a tree. They were told by officials to go inside around noon.
Derek West said it certainly wasn’t a routine occurrence, but added, “There’s been black bear sightings, so it wasn’t too surprising.”
Staff with the Department of Natural Resources were able to get the bear down easy with the help of a dart gun loaded with a sedative.
Paul Peditto, the assistant secretary of land resources with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, said the young bear that showed up in a backyard on Tahona Avenue was likely a young male looking for new territory.
“What happens this time of year is the adult females that raised them a year and a half ago essentially kick them out and say it’s time to leave, you’ve got to go raise your own family,” he told WTOP.
This bear is likely the same one that was spotted in Beltsville and Laurel over the course of the Memorial Day weekend, Peditto said.
Initially, the bear was about 55 feet up in a tree — too high for DNR teams to try to sedate him without injuring him. So, Peditto explained, they used a trick that helps coax bears to climb down from high perches — they tapped on the tree.
“It was remarkable,” Peditto said.
DNR staff member Jim Bennett said he was able to hit the bear with a dart, “and about seven minutes later, he started to get a little loopy,” and started to slowly come down to the ground and curled up.
“He was out cold, snoring in seconds,” Peditto said.
The bear was then tagged and fitted with a research collar.
“It’ll give us some insight to, frankly, what he’s doing hour by hour going forward, which is a pretty unique opportunity,” he said.
That coincides with a study of female bears being done in partnership with the University of Maryland, College Park.
Meanwhile, neighbors were glad to hear that the bear was no longer an issue.
Reginald Bowens, who had just arrived at the West home for a Memorial Day cookout, joked that when he arrived and heard there was a bear nearby, “I had to hurry up! They said there was a bear, I didn’t want to get eaten alive!”
Bowens said he was glad that the bear was going to be relocated. He had worried about heading out after dark with a bear on the loose.
“I didn’t want to have to come out when it was dark and have to run from it!” he said.
Peditto said the bear will be relocated to Western Maryland.
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