According to Jonathan Trudeau, the Game Mammal Section Director at the Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR), black bears are native to Maryland and not just indigenous to our Western districts. Maybe that’s why more and more of our neighbors have found them in their own backyard in Montgomery County.
This picture of a bear taken with a security camera was all over the Nextdoor app earlier this spring.
The picture originated at a home near the intersection of Norbeck and Layhill Roads at the end of April.
MCM received this photo of a bear wandering through a fenced in yard in Four Corners in the Woodmont neighborhood of Silver Spring during the midnight hour.
Montgomery Blair High School sits a little more than half a mile away from the place where the bear was on the prowl.
In case you are thinking it could be the same bear, keep in mind these two Silver Spring locations are nine miles apart.
In Germantown, Luisa Juaregui’s ring camera captured an equally formidable looking creature in her yard.
Juaregui lives near a wooded area. She slept through what could have been a wildlife encounter. When she woke up the next morning, she found the video in the security camera app on her phone. “I was surprised to have seen it on my ring camera.”
Trudeau cautions homeowners to avoid leaving human-generated food sources in the open because of the bears’ powerful sense of smell. Bears he says are smart. And once they find a food source they will return. Even birdseed will attract them to help fill their need for 5 to 8 thousand calories a day.
It is not the policy of the DNR to remove bears from our environment, Trudeau told MCM. But as we learn how to coexist here is some advice on what to do in the case of a bear encounter: stay calm, stand your ground and slowly wave your arms, according to National Park Service. Bears usually want to be left alone, so slowly walking sideways while maintaining watch over the bear and avoiding sudden movements or noises is the safest option.
Olivia Borgula contributed to this article.
