BearSightingOnFrontPorchJune92017At830AM from dave freedman on Vimeo.
An Indian Rock Road man on Friday morning took video of a black bear that appeared on his front porch just as his wife and 5-year-old daughter were to leave the house to catch the bus.
Dave Freedman said it was about 8:30 a.m. when he glanced outside to catch a blur of something passing by the window of his home office.
“Initially I thought it was a large dog because I just caught the tail end of it,” Freedman told NewCanaanite.com. “I realized it was a bear and told my wife and daughter, ‘Do not go outside,’ grabbed a camera and snapped a picture of the bear walking toward us though [the glass panes of a door].”
The sighting marks the third in just a couple of weeks, according to the Animal Control section of the New Canaan Police Department. Residents of eastern New Canaan reported seeing a black bear in the area of Evergreen Road two weeks ago and again yesterday near Mariomi Road.
The black bear from Friday was spotted again around 9:30 a.m. on Logan Road, according to Officer Allyson Halm, head of Animal Control.
She urged New Canaanites to take in birdfeeders at night or hoist them in the air so that bears cannot get at them, and said people can haze black bears they see by making lots of noise.
The bears that New Canaanites are seeing now likely are young males that are venturing forth from their mothers for the first tiem, she said.
The animals are increasing in numbers and have been seen more frequently in Connecticut, according the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection’s Bureau of Natural Resources Wildlife Division.
“They are rarely aggressive toward humans but can create a variety of problems,” the agency said. “In particular, bears that are fed by humans can become habituated and may need to be euthanized. Connecticut residents must learn how to reduce the likelihood of bears becoming a problem. Birdfeeders, garbage, pet food and compost attract bears close to houses and people, and should be made unavailable to bears.”
Halm said she expects that bear activity in New Canaan will only increase.
Freedman said he wasn’t concerned about the bear outside his home on Friday morning, though he would’ve been if he or his family also had been outside (see video above). The resident also said he does not have a birdfeeder or keep garbage cans outside.
The word in the neighborhood was that a bear had been spotted on the same morning on Lambert Road, Freedman said.
Residents spotted bear tracks in eastern New Canaan last December. Another bear had been spotted one earlier, on Park Place.
The omnivorous mammal had been spotted on Weed Street in October 2014 and then made headlines in New Canaan in April 2015, when a (rescue) dog alerted his family to a black bear that had entered the rear porch of a residence. After a black bear was spotted in June 2015 on Thayer Pond Road, officials urged New Canaanites to ensure their garbage cans were secured, and town officials issued a list of do’s and don’ts. Another sighting occurred in Hoyt Farms in September 2015.