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Brenda
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Another Monroe County Bear Sighting
by Casey J. Bortnick
Published Jul 05, 2007

Just when you thought it was safe to leave that picnic basket out, the summer bear sightings are back. The Department of Environmental Conservation believes it's now dealing with two young black bears on different sides of Monroe County. Most people don't seem too alarmed by the latest sightings.

"People just use some common sense and treat it as a wild animal," said DEC Regional Wildlife Manager Mike Wasilco.

It's an animal rarely seen in Monroe County, at least until this summer. And what was once thought to be one bear has become two.

"It's pretty likely the bear that was seen in the Rush area today is a different bear," Wasilco said.

After the first sighting in Henrietta last month, the DEC tracked a young black bear though several towns to Western Monroe County.

"The bear got all the attention a couple of weeks ago. It's still being seen out in the Ogden area," he added.

That bear was spotted in Ogden again Thursday morning. At about the same time, another black bear was seen miles away at the Wildwood Country Club in Rush. A maintenance worker was cutting the grass behind the 18th tee when he spotted the bear standing about 35 yards away. John Trott of Webster told RNews the bear simply looked around for a few minutes before heading back into the woods. So far the sighting of the bear hasn't kept the golfers from playing.

"Absolutely not," said Jim Donovan. "I might be worried about my playing partners, one of them getting me, but certainly not any bear," Donovan added.

The DEC believes both bears migrated north from the Finger Lakes. Wasilco agrees there's no real cause for concern as long as people remember to secure their garbage, and keep an eye on bird feeders.

"Once bears start associating people with food , they start to get into trouble and start losing their fear of people. And that's when they become dangerous," Wasilco said.

The DEC has no plans to trap either bear unless they move into more populated areas. To help continue tracking both animals, the public is asked to call the DEC at (585) 226-5380 with any sightings.
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Jennifer
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We had a bear sighting a mile up our road from my house this past weekend. He visited three homes and then headed for our gully. He was spotted just before Christmas as well....and about 6 years before that.

I also heard there was a bear sighted in the vineyards near Smith Park.

I'm glad they are around...now I just want to see one for myself!
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Jennifer wrote:I'm glad they are around...now I just want to see one for myself!
I'll second that!
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From 13wham.com news:

Bears in the Burbs
Last Update: Jul 11, 2007 8:12 AM

(Rochester, N.Y.) -- At least five black bears have been spotted in Monroe and Ontario counties. The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation calls the sightings unusual, but people who've seen them say they're "neat."

Monday morning, Hobart and William Smith Colleges staff photographer Kevin Colton got a wild assignment.

"I just kept shooting because I didn't know if he was just going to turn around and go back in the woods," said Colton of the young, three-foot-high black bear. "It wasn't like you had this vicious animal coming out from behind with the teeth and claws. He climbed in the dumpster, had some pizza and left."

The bear was first spotted in a cemetery about a quarter mile away. Then at about 10 a.m. it was college-bound.

The DEC said that the bear then turned around and headed south toward Watkins Glen in the Southern Tier, where most of the bears in this region come from.

"Five bears north of finger lakes, I haven't seen that in a number of years, if at all," said Randy Nemecek of the DEC. "It's been fairly dry, so they are looking for different food sources.”

Populations are growing and spreading out. Tracking them doesn't involve push pins on a map or bloodhounds sniffing them out, just a log of calls from people who see the bears. The DEC goes out and looks for themselves.

"He turned and looked at us and semi-posed," Nemeck said.

Those who've seen then bears say they're "cute."

However, the DEC fears that some people will see the bears and think they can approach them. They say that is exactly the wrong thing to do. Call the department or local law enforcement instead.
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From The Finger Lakes Times:

It came, it saw, it wandered ... Several bear sightings reported in and around city

By CRAIG FOX
Tuesday, July 10, 2007 11:15 AM CDT

GENEVA - Thirteen-year-old Alex Cosentino was just finishing up a bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken last night when his mom yelled that there was a bear outside their house on Carter Road Extension.

Probably a cub, the roughly 3-foot-tall bear was sitting on the front porch, looking in at them around 7 p.m. Then it scampered off between their yard and a neighbor's, disappearing down a cliff and into a field, Alex said.

“It startled me. I never saw a bear before,” he said, adding that his mother, Carol, called city police.

This morning, Alex and two friends arrived at the Times' Genesee Street office before much of the staff, eager to share his pictures.

The cub - and possibly its mother - were spotted several times during the day, around St. Clair Street and along Hamilton Street.

It was also seen about 11:30 a.m. trying to get something to eat on the Hobart and William Smith Colleges campus, looking in a trash compactor near a pole barn off St. Clair.

It attracted a group of 15 people - the Colleges' public safety officers, Geneva police, wildlife experts from the state Department of Environmental Conservation and Ontario County sheriff's deputies - who tried to keep track of its whereabouts, said Rob Flowers, the Colleges' interim vice president of student affairs.

“It was more of a topic of conversation, more of an interest to people than anything else,” he said.

Flowers, who saw it briefly, said it looked like the young bear weighed about 125 pounds and that it disappeared into a wooded area just east of the Colleges' practice fields.

HWS summer camp counselors were notified about the sighting and warned to keep an eye out for the curious cub, Flowers said.

In the afternoon, residents also spotted it crossing Hamilton Street and heading toward VanHouten Brothers roofing before it disappeared again.

Randy Nemecek, regional natural resource supervisor for the DEC, said that it's becoming common for bear sightings in the region, noting that in recent weeks, mostly yearlings have been seen in Canandaigua, Victor, Henrietta, and elsewhere across the area.

DEC wildlife experts said they'd heard about a cub near Geneva Country Club and heading south.

To scare the animals off, people who see a bear should make some noise by calling out or banging on pots and pans, Nemecek said, adding they are instinctively afraid of humans and normally will run off when they come in close contact with them.

He also warned that bears are really attracted to food in bird feeders, so people should remove theirs.

Tom Madalena learned that the hard way.

He saw a bigger bear - maybe 6-feet-tall on its hind legs - getting a snack around 7 p.m. from the feeder at his home on Cynthia Drive, which is west of where Cosentinos spotted the cub.

The bear ripped the feeder off the pole, dumped it over and scooped the food from the ground before heading toward North Street, he said.

“This was no cub. It was a full grown bear,” he said. “This thing was huge.”

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I wouldn't mind seeing one while I'm in my car, but I don't think one in my backyard would be so fun.
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I just read of another sighting in Junius over the weekend, off Route 318. I guess that motorists were calling in to complain that it was causing a traffic jam.
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ShanaD

Over the weekend we went up by the Seaway Trail to get some shots. It was about dusk, I was driving and my husband was looking out the window when he saw a dark figure in the middle of an open field. He told me that we needed to turn around because he thought it was the bear that has been seen all over the area. So I turn around and we go back, he runs to get the binoculars so he can get a better look at the dark figure in the field. When he finally gets a good view he lets out a disappointed “Oh.” Turns out his bear sighting was really just a turkey! :rotfl:
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