A black bear was spotted in residential areas in Nogales twice this week in the first bear sighting of the year, officials said.
A video of the bear was posted Wednesday on a Facebook page, We Love Nogales, according to a news release from the Arizona Game and Fish Department. In the video, the bear is seen in a residential area looking through a fence before it runs off around a corner.
Bear sightings in the area aren’t uncommon, although most happen in the forest, not in town, said Mark Hart, spokesman for the Arizona Game and Fish Department. A bear is seen looking for food among garbage in town about once a year or every other year, he said.
The bear was seen Tuesday night and Wednesday morning in the area of Old Tucson Road and El Encanto Place, about a mile south of produce warehouses in Nogales.
“They have a very keen sense of smell,” Hart said. “They can smell a food source from miles away.”
To encourage a bear to go look for food in nature, people should store their garbage cans in a secure shed or garage until the morning of trash collection, the department said in a news release. People should also take down bird feeders and get rid of fruit from trees.
Hart said the department is relying on community members to call game officials at the department’s 24/7 line, 623-236-7201, and report if they see the bear again. The department could then use hazing methods to deter the bear from staying in town or could use a trap to move the bear back to the Coronado National Forest.
Residents can also deter the bear by making loud noise, waving their arms to appear bigger or throwing a non-lethal object at it, Hart said.
“The bear has not menaced anyone at this point,” Hart said. “But it definitely doesn’t belong in an area with homes and we’re hoping that it’ll move out of there and back out to the Coronado National Forest where it undoubtedly came from.”
If the bear were to show aggression to humans — by making a huffing noise, standing on its hind legs or charging and cornering a person — officials would have to kill it, Hart said.
But based on the video, that doesn’t seem to be the case with this bear, he said.
“The most dangerous thing it’s doing is persisting in a residential area but it hasn’t engaged in any kind of overt interaction with people that would make it especially dangerous at this time,” Hart said. “It’s just a hungry bear.”
