A brown-colored black bear made an unexpected visit to a backyard in Pottsville Tuesday.
The bear was seen about 7:30 p.m. in the backyard of 800 N. 16th St.
“It looked up at me and it didn’t stop eating,” Marie Stewart, 72, said of the bear she noticed after she went outside to talk to a family member on the phone.
Her fuzzy visitor also took a drink from a container left in the backyard for birds.
Upon seeing the bear, Stewart screamed and then went back inside the house and locked and closed the door.
“I was scared to death. I was scared for the rest of the night,” Stewart said.
This is the first time she has seen a bear up close. She said the bear was about 30 feet away and was eating birdseed, which contained sunflower seeds.
She told her boyfriend, Dennis Weist, about the bear. He came to the window and then called the Schuylkill County Communications Center. He told the dispatcher there was a bear in the backyard. Within 15 minutes or so, Weist said, two individuals arrived. The bear had gone into the woods before the representatives from the state game commission arrived on scene.
Weist said he noticed the two officers drive up a nearby road and then heard what he said sounded like a shot. He assumes it was a tranquilizer. He does not know what happened to the bear.
A supervisor with the Schuylkill County Communications Center said they received several phone calls for bear sightings Tuesday. The first call was at 6:33 p.m. near Second Street, another at 7 p.m. near Seneca Street and the third at 16th Street. The supervisor said the Pottsville police and the Game Commission were notified.
Peggy Hentz, founder and wildlife rehabilitator of Red Creek Wildlife Center, Schuylkill Haven, said encountering a bear is not “an everyday occurrence,” but it does happen especially here in Schuylkill County.
She said the bear in question is a black bear because it is the only species native to the state. She said if you see a bear you should leave it alone.
“Don’t feed it. Have trash cans that have locking lids,” she said.
Remove any food source, even birdseed if you have it in your yard, because it is likely the bear or another one will return. She also suggested not leaving garbage out overnight to prevent a bear getting into it. If someone sees a bear in distress they should call the game commission and not Red Creek. State law says bears can only be admitted for rehabilitation through the state Game Commission.