{"id":658491,"date":"2026-05-22T13:07:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T13:07:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/658491\/"},"modified":"2026-05-22T13:07:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T13:07:12","slug":"east-ridge-police-warn-residents-after-juvenile-black-bear-spotted-in-neighborhoods","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/658491\/","title":{"rendered":"East Ridge police warn residents after juvenile black bear spotted in neighborhoods"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>EAST RIDGE, Tenn. \u2014 Police are urging residents in East Ridge to keep their distance after a bear was spotted roaming through neighborhoods Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>The East Ridge Police Department says they received several calls about a bear sighting. <\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Image via ERPD\" class=\"ImageEmbed_image__qZBo_\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1f23f088-66c5-4826-8f06-ca8bba1d2ac3-702625984_1303896775212770_9126739391890141898_n.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Officers located \u201cthe juvenile black bear\u201d in the Bennett and Seminole area and watched it for any signs of distress.<\/p>\n<p>According to police, the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency \u201cwill not respond unless the animal is aggressive or in a dangerous situation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Image via ERPD\" class=\"ImageEmbed_image__qZBo_\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/2f801d31-64fc-4925-bebc-a37465b16e92-703659330_1303896798546101_1104948269373609556_n.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Police say bear sightings \u201chave seemingly been on the rise in the region,\u201d and reminded the public to treat bears as wild animals and not to approach, try to capture or harass them.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey live naturally in our area and have for a long time!\u201d ERPD says. \u201cTake some pictures (like we did) and enjoy a rare moment.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EAST RIDGE, Tenn. \u2014 Police are urging residents in East Ridge to keep their distance after a bear&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":658492,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[79,201],"class_list":["post-658491","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/658491","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=658491"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/658491\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/658492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=658491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=658491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=658491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}