Flurry of black bear sightings across U.S linked to season, post-pandemic migration

Black bears are showing up in recently in places you may not expect – from the Boston suburbs to North Carolina's Outer Banks to Washington, D.C. 

One of the most recent sightings occurred Tuesday morning, when residents found a black bear sitting in a tree in suburban Washington, D.C. 

The bear is still one the loose, and the citing followed one June 9 right in the nation's capital. Residents saw a bear climbing in trees and roaming city streets, according to FOX 5 DC.

“This isn’t the first one, it probably won’t be the last," said Chris Schindler, vice president of Field Services at the Humane Rescue Alliance. "We’re always prepared for something a little bit unusual."

That bear was eventually captured by authorities and released in a rural area of Maryland.

Wildlife education organization BearWise says the uptick in bear sightings during the early summer is attributable to few factors – including males traveling in search of mates and juvenile male bears wandering beyond their homes for a new place to live, after hibernating during the winter.

Americans moving into newly built exurbs, often once the forested homes of some of the bears, is another factor, the group says.

To be sure, migration patterns in this country have long brought people face to face with wild animals, from the days of early settlers and pioneers. 

Still, BearWise acknowledges the exodus from cities to more rural areas during the COVID-19 pandemic could have accelerated the recent series of black bear encounters. 

In Tennessee, where black bear spotting are more frequent, officials say the population dropped after European settlement but as the result of conservation and management efforts "black bears are making a dramatic comeback in the Southeast."

In other recent incidents, the Arlington Public Schools district, in the Boston suburbs, had to delay the start of school Monday one hour Monday, after a black bear was spotted in the area. Another bear was seen a day earlier in a nearby neighborhood, according to CBS News Boston.

One was recently spotted in Missouri, and another was seen June 8 on North Carolina's Outer Bank, a series of barrier islands fronting the Atlantic Ocean.

To be sure, the region is among the most remote in the recent sightings. And many black bears live in its Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge, according to the Virginian-Pilot newspaper. 

Still, the sight of one swimming through the water by a local causeway was a shock to one resident.

“I couldn’t believe it,” said Outer Banker Brandi Lassen Justice.