DEC hopes Amherst bear moves on by Wednesday
AMHERST, N.Y. (WIVB) — People in Amherst are still on alert Tuesday after a black bear was spotted in neighborhoods off of Maple Road.
The bear was caught on camera roaming around in streets and yards.
“They normally don’t come here,” said neighbor Chris Jeffery. “Maybe they’re coming here to get food — they have nowhere else to go or they just lose their path.”
Amherst police told WIVB News 4 the bear was first spotted around 11 a.m. Tuesday in the area of Sherbrooke Avenue near Maple Road.
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and Amherst police tracked the bear to a wooded backyard on Hopkins Road.
“There are natural apple and pear trees back there, so there are a lot of food sources,” said neighbor Michael Wohl. “We saw movement and we heard noises back there. We could see it chasing animals.”
DEC agents on the scene Tuesday night said there are no plans to tranquilize or move the bear.
“Anesthesia that’s used can take 10 to 15 minutes to fully anesthetize an animal and in 15 minutes a scared or worried animal could travel a long way,” said Ryan Rockefeller, a DEC wildlife biologist. “We could lose contact with it, it could run across the road, get into backyards that we don’t want them to be in.”
The bear was seen crossing residential streets and running away from Amherst police and the town’s animal control cruiser, causing commotion in the neighborhood.
“I am out here to just make sure that the bear is taken care of safely,” Jeffery said. “I want to make sure that it’s tranquilized and not shot.”
The hope is that if the bear got here by itself, it could also get out without help.
“I’m actually happy to see that they are not intimidating the bear to where it’s going to turn around and be aggressive towards other people,” another neighbor said.
The DEC will reassess the situation on Wednesday morning, Rockefeller said.
“If the bear hasn’t moved on or seems like it just needs a little more assistance, then we might have to intervene with some other method, but we haven’t really determined what that would be at this point,” he said.
According to Rockefeller, the bear will most likely be on the move Tuesday night into Wednesday morning, so if you are in the Amherst area, do not approach it and make sure your children and pets are indoors. If you are driving, watch out for it crossing roadways.
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Dillon Morello is a reporter from Pittsburgh who has been part of the News 4 team since September of 2023. See more of his work here and follow him on Twitter.
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