Where's the bear? Residents report new spotting in Bear
A black bear that was first spotted on Saturday in Newark has apparently made its way to Bear, local residents said Tuesday — and it was seen happily eating and roaming in at least two backyards.
But Raintree Village residents who saw the the omnivore, affectionately known as Delabear, had a range of emotions.
"We're excited and scared," said Belal Bma, whose neighbor alerted him to the bear about 3:30 a.m. as he took out the trash and moved his car.
Bma and his neighbor, Paula Hutchinson, called authorities, but none came. They eventually reached out to Rosemary Waggoner — president of Raintree Village Civic Association, located off South Old Baltimore Pike.
Waggoner said the animal was on two decks eating birdseed for about two-and-a-half hours. Residents reached out to the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control, Waggoner said, but no one answered.
A voicemail said to call 911, which she said they did. She wasn't aware of any police or animal control arriving.
When will wildlife officials get involved?
Wildlife officials typically don't intervene unless there's a threat to public safety or another reason (such as in 2019, when a black bear made its way through Wilmington's Trolley Square). Many locals ignored officials at the time who asked them to stay away. Eventually, DNREC stopped sharing the animal's location because bystanders would show up when the bear was spotted, which interfered with the capture.
On Tuesday, despite multiple questions from a reporter, DNREC provided no details about if or when it would intervene with this bear.
UPDATE ON THE BEAR IN DELAWARE: Delabear struck and killed by motorist on Route 1
OVER THE WEEKEND: Delabear sighting: Girl spots bear on family's deck in Newark
"DNREC wildlife biologists and Delaware Natural Resources Police (DNRP) officers are engaged and coordinating reports of black bear sightings with authorities in the Newark area," said an emailed statement from DNREC spokesperson Michael Globetti. "DNRP officers also have public safety training for any recurrence of transient black bears from surrounding states straying into Delaware urban and suburban settings."
Globetti didn't respond to further questions.
Bear in Raintree Village
Hutchinson said she was speaking to her husband about the bear on Monday night.
"He hadn't heard that he [Delabear] was around," she said. But around 3 a.m., her husband woke her up to tell her the bear was in their backyard, which he could see on a security camera.
The bear was not startled when the couple turned on their backyard floodlights.
"He was out there, just chowing down on my bird feeders," Hutchinson said. "He just was hanging out. I took pictures. He was just hanging out, like relaxing."
Hutchinson, who had called police, said she went to her front door when she saw car lights. It turned out to be Bma, who was moving his car about 3:30 in the morning.
"There's a bear in the yard," Hutchinson warned Bma from her front door.
Bma returned home and called authorities, who assured him they were aware of the bear. He then called Hutchinson as he peered out an upstairs window and into her yard.
"I can see the bear," he said. "It has a white spot on its face."
He then walked downstairs to his patio door, but he could no longer see the bear in her yard.
"Paula, where did the bear go?" he asked his neighbor, who was on the other line.
As they were speaking to one another, Bma said, he saw the bear walking off his deck. The bear then walked around Bma's pool and the rest of his yard, before climbing a fence back into Hutchinson's yard.
More than two hours after the bear was first sighted in Raintree Village, it eventually left Hutchinson's yard by scaling over a 7-foot wooden fence toward the direction of Smalleys Pond.
Hutchinson said she's seen a lot of creatures in her yard, but never a bear.
"I didn't need coffee this morning," Hutchinson said when asked how she was feeling about the bear sighting.
Bear warning
Bma found it amusing that a day earlier his cousin had warned him about the bear being spotted in the Scottfield community, which is several miles away. The cousin was concerned as Bma's wife tends to their backyard plants.
"Are you kidding me?" Bma remembers asking his cousin. "Why would the bear come all the way over here? We are pretty protected. Secured."
Bears travel farthest when food is harder to find, especially in spring, according to BearWise.org, which is managed by bear biologists and communications professionals. An individual bear may travel between 20 and 40 miles in a single day.
Male black bears have home ranges up to 300 square miles; female black bears only about 50 square miles, according BearWise.
Is the bear still in the Newark area?
Newark police spokesperson Lt. Andrew Rubin said the department received "a few" calls on Saturday about the bear, prompting a news alert at the time. Since then, officers have not fielded additional calls, he said.
Rubin added that the calls are now in New Castle County police jurisdiction.
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This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: Black bear sightings reported in Bear Tuesday morning
