PATTERSON- Aidan Galligan looked out of his front door and couldn’t believe his eyes when a huge black bear lumbered across the family’s lawn.
Bears, like other wild animals, are foraging for food throughout the Hudson Valley.
Aidan’s dad, who owns the Carmel Flower Shop, said he never saw such destruction of flora and fauna caused by deer and other wildlife.
“My trees and shrubs have been decimated this summer,” he said.
On Wednesday, a Carmel woman was driving along Route 311 in Patterson when a huge bear walked across the road in front of her car.
It was beautiful all right but so unreal,” she told Mid-Hudson News.
Around 8 p.m. a resident of Collier Drive in Carmel heard rustling in her backyard and sighted a bear rummaging through garbage.
Lifelong Putnam resident Walter Recher peered out his front window on Crafts Road in Lake Carmel and couldn’t believe his eyes.
A huge black bear was lumbering through his yard – stopping to search for food – before heading into a wooded area.
“I’ve seen all kinds of wildlife over the years but never a bear so enormous. This guy was huge,” he said.
A Southeast man encountered a large black bear when walking his property along Farm to Market Road near Twin Hills Lake about a mile and a half from the Brewster School District campus.
The most unusual sighting happened in Patterson, where a large bear climbed a tree outside a home to get to a bird feeder before being challenged by the family’s Wheaten Terrier. After a tense stare-down and several barks, the bear left to look for food elsewhere.
The DEC has encouraged residents to “remove and/ or secure food sources that might attract bears. By doing so the public is helping keep bears away from people, homes, and neighborhoods, which help keep bears healthy, wild, and safe.”
New York’s bear population is estimated at 6,000 to 8,000, mostly in the Adirondacks and Catskills. Bears are also appearing in more populated areas, including the Hudson Valley and Southern Tier, increasing the potential for human-bear conflicts.
To mitigate interaction with bears, DEC wildlife biologists suggest emptying bird feeders, cleaning spilled seeds, securing garbage cans in sturdy buildings, cleaning grills, and keeping pet and livestock food indoors.