ASHEVILLE, N.C. (WLOS) — The North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission is still working to capture the bear that injured a resident on Tuesday, Aug. 18, after entering a north Asheville home.

Wildlife expert urges Asheville to boost bear prevention efforts after recent encounters. (WLOS)

While the search continues, wildlife experts are urging residents to practice bear prevention by securing garbage, bringing in bird feeders and securing pet food.

Experts have had to repeat that a lot lately after the incident on Tuesday evening when an adult female bear entered a north Asheville home. NCWRC said the occupant sustained non-life-threatening injuries as the bear tried to leave. The NCWRC BearWise Coordinator Ashley Hobbs said the investigation into the bear break-in at the north Asheville home revealed it wasn’t the first time it’s happened.

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This is why the Commission decided the bear needed to be found and euthanized, she said.

“When we were investigating, we found that this bear had broken into that specific residence multiple times throughout the summer, in fact many times throughout the summer by opening unlocked doors and going inside to retrieve pet food from inside the home. That does meet the threshold for a bear being considered a risk to human safety and our agency has decided to take steps to remove that bear and put that bear down.”

Wildlife experts have placed traps in the area to help identify and safely capture the bear. Once it is caught, they will work to confirm the bear’s identity matches the one they are looking for and take measures to euthanize it, Hobbs said.

Traps could remain out through the weekend. If it’s not captured by then, monitoring will continue. It’s possible that the bear could be caught in another area.

“If it’s not captured, we’ll continue to monitor the area. That doesn’t mean that we won’t capture this bear in a different area at a different time, but we will kind of take a step back and monitor and then continue to educate the community in order to turn things around and hopefully do better from the human side of things,” Hobbs said.

She says relocating the bear isn’t an option.

“I don’t have anywhere rural to put them and the survival rate of relocated bears is very low, so it’s not necessarily a good outcome for the bear either,” said Hobbs.

She says the bear’s cubs that will be relocated will have a better chance of reacclimating in a new environment, because they haven’t learned to be as reliant on humans. She said there are measures that people and the City of Asheville can take to prevent incidents like this from happening again.

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“I have a wish list for things the city of Asheville can do to turn things around and prevent things like this in the future,” said Hobbs.

Hobbs said she wants to see the city of Asheville reinvest in bear-resistant carts. These are trash bins with secure locking lids. She said the city recently cut funding for them.

Hobbs pointed us to Bearwise.org. It has resources that not only teach people how to coexist with bears but also lists examples of ordinances and regulations that local governments can adopt to protect people, property as well as the bears.

Examples include storing trash in bear-resistant containers, not feeding birds during months when bears are active, not feeding wildlife and protecting backyard livestock, beehives and fruit trees with electric fencing.

City Councilmember Bo Hess says he’s interested in bringing back bear-resistant carts in the next budget. He’s also interested in signage to help inform residents and tourists on how to interact with bears.