Bear is caught near school

A police officer says the youngblack bear wasn't aggressive.
By TIM YOVICHand MARALINE KUBIK
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITERS
LIBERTY -- A young black bear spotted near a Liberty school Tuesday afternoon is expected to be released into the Grand River wildlife area in Farmington Township this morning.
Using jelly donuts and vanilla extract as bait, officials from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources' Wildlife Division trapped the bear just after 10 p.m. Tuesday.
"Bears aren't too picky about what they eat. Anything sweet will attract them," said Jamey Graham, a wildlife communications specialist with the ODNR.
The trap -- made from pipe used for culverts -- was brought in hours earlier, but the bear disappeared into a wooded area along Shady Road, across the street from W.S. Guy Middle School.
At one point, the bear lumbered from the woods onto the edge of a field used to practice football and then returned to the woods.
Because bears are nocturnal, wildlife experts said it may have gone to sleep after that, waking and going after the bait only after the sun went down.
One of two
The bear, one of at least two sighted several times in the Liberty-Howland-Warren area in the last two weeks, is a young male, Graham said. Once the cubs are 11/2 to 2 years old, the mother chases the males off, she explained. Older males run them out too, if they wander into their territory.
The young bears are often confused and sometimes wander into urban and suburban areas. They've been known to travel up to 350 miles in just a few days, Graham continued, so it is difficult to say where this bear may have come from.
One spotted in Warren last Thursday was captured after being tranquilized and set free in a wildlife area.
Relocated bears are tagged so wildlife officials will know if they return to populated areas, Graham said.
Ideally, bears that wander into populated areas find their way back into the wild, Graham added. They are tranquilized and relocated only as a last resort.
As of late Tuesday, the black bear trapped near the middle school did not need to be tranquilized. "He went into the trap on his own and didn't cause any problem," Graham said.
Earlier, Jim Smith, a township patrol officer, was about a dozen feet away from the bear when it stood on its back legs.
"I was pretty surprised," Smith said, recollecting he thought the wild animal was nearly 7 feet tall.
For the rest of the afternoon, Smith, a cadre of fellow officers and Jerrod Allison, state wildlife officer for Trumbull County, stood vigil, hoping the bear would move along on its own.
Spotted near hotel
Smith said he responded after a resident spotted the bear near the Quality Inn and Suites along Belmont Avenue.
When he pulled his cruiser into the area, he noticed a woman with a large dog. At a quick glance, Smith thought the dog was the bear.
Then the officer saw the bear. It stood up, didn't make a sound, and walked off on all fours to a nearby trash container.
Allison said he didn't want to scare the bear Tuesday because it might run onto Interstate 80, causing an accident, or run into a nearby neighborhood.
As with the one captured in Warren, Allison speculated that it wandered here from Pennsylvania, looking for a mate and to establish a new territory.
Black bears native to this part of the country are extremely docile, Graham added. They are usually afraid of people, barking dogs and loud noises, and move very slowly.
To keep bears away, Allison suggested people don't put their garbage cans out until the day of pickup and don't feed the birds.
Seed is another food source for bears, he explained, and there is plenty of food available for birds in the summer.