The black bear that’s been wandering south Gainesville since last week — first spotted in the Kirkwood subdivision — is still on the prowl.
So far the bear hasn’t posed an immediate danger to anyone, but it will probably stick around the area, said Officer Ben Tobias, spokesman for Gainesville Police.
“He’s probably not going to be going anywhere, since that’s the place he found a bite to eat,” Tobias said.
On Thursday morning, the bear knocked down a bird feeder, valued at about $100, in Betty Jean Schelske’s yard in the 2000 block of Southwest Ninth Drive, according to a GPD incident report.
Although she did not see it happen, Schelske, 77, said in the report that the bear must have jumped over her fence to get in.
GPD is coordinating with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, Tobias said, and the agency will take responsibility once it can pinpoint the animal.
“It’s basically going to be their show whenever we can get him in a particular area,” he said.
During the weekend, the FWC received a few bear sighting reports, said Karen Parker, an FWC regional public information coordinator.
An FWC officer and a biologist tried to hunt for the bear during the weekend, she said, but it evaded them each time.
“Every time they showed up, the bear had moved on,” she said.
The team planned to haze the bear with a “bean bag shot from shotgun,” she said, “to let him know being around humans is very uncomfortable.”
At one point during the weekend, Parker said, the biologist went to the north area of Paynes Prairie in response to a sighting report.
When the biologist arrived, a report came in that indicated the bear had moved to the south of Paynes Prairie. As soon as the biologist reached that area, a report said the bear was back in the north area.
For now, Parker said, the FWC will continue to track reports.
“We did want him to go back to where he belongs,” she said. “If the bear can make his way back to his house, that’s what we want.”
The sightings made a splash on Twitter as residents posted jokes about it using the hashtags #GainesvilleBear and #yogi. Tweets from the handle @GainesvilleBea1 began to appear Thursday. One read, “Yes I poop in the woods.”
“I’m happy he’s created a Twitter account,” Tobias joked. “That means the lines of communication are open.”
Contact Kelcee Griffis at kgriffis@alligator.org.
