{"id":640294,"date":"2026-05-13T09:15:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T09:15:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/640294\/"},"modified":"2026-05-13T09:15:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T09:15:10","slug":"southeast-michigan-black-bear-officials-on-the-hunt-in-flat-rock-area","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/640294\/","title":{"rendered":"Southeast Michigan black bear: Officials on the hunt in Flat Rock area"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/e66qpdrr4ho0u8ae.jpg\" alt=\"Black bear spotted wandering in Southeast Michigan neighborhood\" class=\"sr-only\" data-v-4292be72=\"\"\/>  <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox2detroit.com\/video\/fmc-yk85u89b4wzvmd2h\" data-v-4292be72=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Black bear spotted wandering in Southeast Michigan neighborhood<\/a> <\/p>\n<p data-v-4292be72=\"\">This one isn&#8217;t in the job description for local police officers, but yes, they are on bear duty after one was spotted on a Blink security system roaming outside a house. A grizzly situation caught on security video in Flat Rock. Police confirmed the sighting of a black bear. And it could be &#8220;claws-for-concern!&#8221;<\/p>\n<p data-v-871f4c88=\"\">FLAT ROCK, Mich. (FOX 2) &#8211; A black bear is on the loose downriver and several Southeast Michigan police departments are on alert as well as state wildlife officials.<\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"\" origination_station=\"WJBK\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-871f4c88=\"\">Big picture view:<\/p>\n<p data-v-871f4c88=\"\">Officials are on bear duty after one was spotted on a Blink security system roaming outside a house in Flat Rock. Police confirmed the sighting of the bear and it could be &#8220;claws-for-concern!&#8221;<\/p>\n<p data-v-871f4c88=\"\">The bear was seen very close to Dan Priest\u2019s house on Woodruff Road near Olmstead and I-75.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>  <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/4pdoul5u3tlaottc.jpg\" alt=\"Officials investigating Flat Rock black bear sighting\" class=\"sr-only\" data-v-4292be72=\"\"\/>  <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox2detroit.com\/video\/fmc-z3iexr9ifafby62d\" data-v-4292be72=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Officials investigating Flat Rock black bear sighting<\/a> <\/p>\n<p data-v-4292be72=\"\">A black bear sighting has authorities on high alert after video from a home in the area showed one walking at night.&#13;<br \/>\nThe sighting was in the area of Woodruff Road, between Olmstead and I-75 in Flat Rock.&#13;<br \/>\nIf you do see the bear, please do not approach or interact with it. Instead, avoid the animal and call the police department.&#13;<br \/>\nThe City of Rockwood is also advising residents to exercise caution following its sighting on a home security camera. The bear was seen moving through a residential yard before continuing north.<\/p>\n<p> Why in Southeast Michigan? <\/p>\n<p data-v-871f4c88=\"\">&#8220;If it\u2019s overpopulation or crowding, or for food or who knows, maybe somebody startled it, and it just wandered away,&#8221;\u00a0said Priest. &#8220;It just kept wandering until it got further and further away. There are long strips of forest and woodland around here.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p data-v-871f4c88=\"\">Rockwood Police says the Michigan DNR has been notified and is monitoring the situation with no reports of aggressive behavior or property damage.<\/p>\n<p data-v-871f4c88=\"\">&#8220;We get all the animals from the woods over there going to the stream on the other side of the street,&#8221; said Priest. &#8220;We have actually peacocks and ponies living down the road in an apartment complex.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p data-v-871f4c88=\"\">Officer Jones at nearby Gibraltar Police managed to get an \u2018AI bear\u2019 off the street, according to the Department&#8217;s social media post.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/well-hide-your-picnic-baskets-and-secure-your-trash.-theres-a-black-bear-on-the-loose-downriver-and-.jpeg\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" fetchpriority=\"auto\" data-v-2fe2fe3e=\"\"\/>  <\/p>\n<p data-v-871f4c88=\"\">But the real one is still on the loose and a warning: don\u2019t call if you see an alligator or snake. They aren\u2019t trained for that.<\/p>\n<p data-v-871f4c88=\"\">\u00a0If you do see the black bear, Rockwood officials have some advice:<\/p>\n<p> Do not approachMake yourself look bigKeep your pets close too  Watch FOX 2 Detroit LIVE:     <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox2detroit.com\/tag\/us\/mi\/wayne-county\/flat-rock\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-871f4c88=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Flat Rock<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Black bear spotted wandering in Southeast Michigan neighborhood This one isn&#8217;t in the job description for local police&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":640295,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[276420,13592,3,79,25,27208,201],"class_list":["post-640294","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-flat-rock","tag-mi","tag-news","tag-science","tag-us","tag-wayne-county","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640294","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=640294"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640294\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/640295"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=640294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=640294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=640294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}