OCALA, Fla. – One woman’s trash is another bear’s treasure.
Ocala resident Monica Howard spotted a juvenile bear rummaging through her trash recently. Video shows it peeking its head out of the bin and running off into the woods when people start approaching it.
The footage then captures it walking across the paved road, back into the trees.
According to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, juvenile bears between the ages of 1 1/2 and 2 1/2 years old start to leave their mothers’ home ranges during the spring and summer. This means that bears can be seen in unexpected areas as they search for a new place to settle, wildlife officials said.
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FWC officials added that typically, those bears will move along on their own and anyone who encounters one should give it space and not approach or feed it.
“Seeing a bear in a neighborhood is not necessarily cause for alarm. However, it is important that residents secure food attractants so that bears do not linger in the area. If a bear is not able to find food, it will move on,” wildlife officials said in a statement.
FWC offered the following tips to reduce conflict and stay safe when it comes to bears and other wildlife:
- Remove or secure food attractants from your house and yard, including garbage, pet food and birdseed
- Store garbage in a sturdy shed or garage and put it out no earlier than the morning of pickup
- Modify your existing garbage can to make it more bear-resistant or use a bear-resistant container
- Secure commercial garbage in bear-resistant dumpsters
Contact the FWC’s Wildlife Alert Hotline at 1-888-404-3922 if you feel threatened by a bear, observe a sick, injured, dead or orphaned bear or see someone who is either harming bears or intentionally feeding them.
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