I heard a rumor that a full grown bear was spotted last Thursday in the middle of Nelson, near the intersection.

Anyone else hear this? I'd like to see one.

FH

Not too sure about that, but we've been seeing a lot of them in the Smyrna area and outside of Norwich.

I've seen them in Mid-Oneida Cty....

A few sightings around here. I have not seen any.

My Wife said she heard of one near the town of Westmoreland...but she's not sure.
I've yet to see any around here though.

Haven't heard or seen anything in the madison county so far. I'm by colgate university and nothing yet.

They are everywhere now, probably worsened by the fact that NJ is over crowded with them and they are moving north. I see their "scat" in the woods all the time. Never actually seen one though to tell you the truth, which is fine by me.

NJ is overcrowded for sure. The bears that FH is talking about have come north via the southern tier of NY. I don't think he's getting Catskills/Adirondack residents where he is. I've confirmed from DEC Biologists that ranges are expanding about 1.5 miles north from the southern tier each year. Rochester had more than its fair share of bear ventures recently too, and the Cuse area is no different.

FH, most of them are 1.5 yr old males that are looking for new territory after being displaced by mama. Every once in a while, your area will get a
"passer-by" similar to what happens in Rochester. The DEC will frequently relocate problem bears, and collar them. Often, the bear, like other animals, will find their way back. Sometimes they take detours, etc.

We've got quite a few around Broome County now. They've been showing up in downtown Binghamton and Endicott lately. Vestal is loaded with 'em. We assume they're coming from PA. The past 4-5 years now they've become a lot more visible.

I live in the catskills and we've had quite a few bear problems. Walking into campsites stealing food, breaking into people's houses and stealing the fridge, stuff like that. Of course the idiots whose homes and campsites were raided weretrying to attract them by feeding them. When the food supply got cut off, they just came in and took what they wanted.

I personally responded to a call where a 300lb bear trashed a woman's car, crushing the roof, blowing out all of the windows, and ripping one of the doors around to get to a bag of dog food in the car. She was buying dog food and feeding a few bears each night. She liked to have her grandchildren watch them come and eat. This night she got home late and didn't feel like unloading the dog food. Yup, she was sorry.

This is a smaller mother bear (she was in milk) that my cousin took last season