{"id":598058,"date":"2026-04-21T18:28:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T18:28:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/598058\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T18:28:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T18:28:08","slug":"black-bear-spotted-in-durham-wral-com","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/598058\/","title":{"rendered":"Black bear spotted in Durham :: WRAL.com"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A bear was recently spotted in a Durham<br \/>\nneighborhood. <\/p>\n<p>A resident&#8217;s camera caught it near Sandy Creek Park. It appears to be a black bear, a species that is increasingly moving into the Triangle.<\/p>\n<p>The bear sighting in Durham comes at a time when the state<br \/>\nis expanding an awareness campaign that\u2019s already well known in the<br \/>\nmountains. The campaign,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/bearwise.org\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">known as BearWise,\u00a0<\/a>comes as bear<br \/>\npopulations are growing statewide, and breeding populations of bears are<br \/>\ninching closer to the Triangle.<\/p>\n<p>Through the campaign, state officials are encouraging people<br \/>\nin Raleigh, Durham, and the rest of the Piedmont to learn how to live with<br \/>\nbears.<\/p>\n<p>According to the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, the state is<br \/>\nhome to more than 20,000 bears, a population that\u2019s growing at a rate of about<br \/>\n3% each year. Already bears are living and mating in Vance, Warren, Franklin,<br \/>\nEdgecomb, Wilson, and more counties, and are expanding their range by about 3-to-5<br \/>\nmiles each year. That\u2019s leading to more conflict with humans, and more calls to<br \/>\nwildlife control officers.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>To avoid that conflict, the Wildlife Resource Commission is encouraging people<br \/>\nto be \u201cBear Wise\u201d and<a href=\"https:\/\/bearwise.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">\u00a0follow<br \/>\nguidelines laid out by state wildlife agency experts from across the nation.<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The tips include rinsing out garbage cans, keeping smelly food scraps frozen<br \/>\ntill trash day, and taking in bird feeders when there\u2019s bear activity close to<br \/>\nyour home.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>District Biologist Joe Folta says, \u201cThe bear sited in Durham disappeared as<br \/>\nquickly as it appeared, which is often the case if they don&#8217;t find an easy<br \/>\nsource of food. Folks should determine why the bear is there. Is there a food<br \/>\nsource or attractant? If the bear seems to be intent on staying, scare it away.<br \/>\nMost bears can be scared by simply making loud noises.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Folta also said the bear in Durham was<br \/>\nmostly likely transient. And this is the time of year when transient<br \/>\nbears are moving through all parts of North Carolina, including the Piedmont.<\/p>\n<p>You can contact the NC Wildlife Resources Commission if you see<br \/>\na bear or have any wildlife questions through the Wildlife Helpline at 866-318-2401 or\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.wral.com\/news\/local\/bear-spotted-campaign-durham-april-2026\/mailto:HWI@ncwildlife.gov\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">HWI@ncwildlife.gov<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A bear was recently spotted in a Durham neighborhood. A resident&#8217;s camera caught it near Sandy Creek Park.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":598059,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[7438,76429,79,201],"class_list":["post-598058","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-bear","tag-durham","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/598058","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=598058"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/598058\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/598059"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=598058"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=598058"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=598058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}