Bear spottings becoming more frequent in region

By Dave Thompson
Lynchburg News & Advance
Published: May 13, 2008

Barbara Yarborough remembers the first time she saw the bear in her backyard off English Tavern Road.

It was July 29, 2007. She was talking to her sister, Teresa Price, on the phone.

“I looked out the window,” Yarborough said, “and I said, ‘Teresa! A black bear’s out here!’”

She’s seen the bear several times since then in her Campbell County yard, including as recently as a few weeks ago.

It’s an unsettling sight for Yarborough, who likes to work in her yard and now thinks twice before heading out. She is also concerned about the proximity of nearby development. Russell Springs and other new housing subdivisions are about a mile or so from her home.

State wildlife officials and the Campbell County Sheriff’s Office say that bear sightings are becoming more common.

So common, in fact, that residents often don’t bother to call about them, said Maj. Steve Hutcherson of the Campbell County Sheriff’s Office.

Hutcherson said calls about bear sightings have trailed off in recent years despite increased sightings.

“Twenty years ago, it was more unusual to see a bear,” he said. “Eight or nine years ago, it was odd to have a bear sighting. In the last four or five years, it seems to be fairly common.”

Hutcherson said a bear was hit by a car on Virginia 24 in Campbell County last week. The car was likely totaled, but its driver was all right.

“That’s one heck of a road hazard,” Hutcherson said. “For the most part, if a bear sees you, they’re gone.”

Yarborough grew up in the house she lives in on a street about two miles down English Tavern Road from U.S. 29.

“My dad built the place in the ’30s; (there was) no such thing as a bear around here,” she said.

She said she had never seen a bear until last summer. After spotting it several times after that, she contacted the state Department of Game and Inland Fisheries for advice.

DGIF officials told her they would not come to trap the animal, but they made several suggestions that she tried, like setting pure ammonia outside as a repellent and making sure no dog food or bird feeders were left in the yard.

It seemed to do the trick. Yarborough said she went several months without seeing the bear.

“(I) thought I’d successfully scared him away,” she said.

A bear was back, though, on April 18. Yarborough thinks it is the same one.

So she has taken the same precautions again. She even borrowed a German Shepard-mix dog from her daughter-in-law, although not for long.

The dog was intimidated by the bear, which found the dog food an extra incentive for coming around.

Yarborough has taken to carrying a “sports horn” when she’s out in her yard, hoping the sudden loud noise would scare the bear away, if necessary.

Her sister, who lives just down the road, does the same thing. Teresa Price said she saw the bear twice last summer, once while walking down the road from her sister’s house to her own in the afternoon.

Price spotted it in a neighbor’s driveway and immediately picked up her pace, looking over her shoulder at the bear until she got to her driveway. Then she ran into her house.

“I told my husband I just seen the bear,” she said. “He told me I was white as a sheet!”

Their neighbor, Linda Proffitt, had a similar reaction last week when she was watering her flowers and saw a bear about 50 feet away.

“When you see it, it’s like you’re looking at TV or something, it’s unreal,” she said.

Now, she carries a stick with her on trips to the

mailbox.

“It just gives you something to think about,” she said, “because you never know what a wild animal would do.”

Yarborough worries the wooded area around her property could provide a perfect hiding place for the animal.

“That bear could be behind that holly, and I wouldn’t know until I go around the bend there,” she said, “and I could meet him face to face.”

She is also concerned about nearby neighbors and numerous families who live in the new housing developments along English Tavern Road.

“Normally they’re afraid of humans,” she said, “but this one is getting accustomed to humans.”

Though she hasn’t heard any reports of serious damage other than the occasional downed bird feeder, she’s taking all the precautions she can.

She’s even paying attention to when she cooks dinner to avoid enticing the bear.

“I don’t want any odors of food seeping out the windows and doors,” she said.

Staff writers Carrie Sidener and Christa Desrets contributed.

Meeting a bear

As temperatures rise in the spring and summer, so do the number of bear sightings throughout Virginia, according to the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries.

Sightings are common throughout the months of April and May, as bears leave their dens and search for food, sometimes in residential areas, according to the DGIF.

Here are steps the department recommends to take upon seeing a bear:

- Keep a respectful distance from the bear and do not feed it. Bring pets inside and leave the immediate area so the bear has a clear path to leave.

- If a bear cub is spotted without its mother, do not approach it; the mother bear likely will return soon.

- Keep residential properties and vehicles clear of smells that may attract bears, such as garbage, pet food, bird feeders, outdoor grills, composts and beehives.

- If a bear continues to visit a residence, consider installing electric fencing around potential food sources. If addressed quickly, bears usually leave the area after a few failed attempts to find food.

For more information, see the game department’s Web site, http://www.dgif.state.va.us.

— Christa Desrets