\n\t\t\t\t\t\tA black bear was spotted roaming a Northeast Heights neighborhood Tuesday morning. While residents say bear sightings are not unusual in the foothills, water and fruit trees often attract the animals to the area.Foothills resident Brad Carvey lives nearby and is no stranger to the wildlife.”I’ve seen black bears this year. This morning, early this morning, like 2 or 3 in the morning,” Carvey said. “We’ve had bears in our yard off and on for the last ten years.”Carvey noted that the bears regularly pass through the area looking for an easy meal before moving on, recalling a specific instance in his yard.”We had a mother with cubs,” Carvey said. “And the mother would climb up the tree and break off branches which had fall to the ground. And then the cubs would eat the cherries off the branches on the ground.”Carvey said that the animals are generally hesitant to interact with humans.”Black bears are more afraid of you than you are of them. They’ll usually run away at the slightest provocation,” Carvey said.For neighbors in the area, sharing space with wildlife comes with living near the foothills.”It’s part of our heritage, and we want to respect that wildlife and make sure that they have the space to continue to raise their families and live out their lives,” Stacey Sutton Kerby of Animal Protection New Mexico said.However, a black bear seen waltzing down the side of the road Tuesday morning, and Sutton Kerby noted that is when these encounters can become dangerous.”They could be hit by a vehicle. We don’t want any bears or any people hurt,” Sutton Kerby said. When bears venture into these areas, the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish steps in.”We need to protect people from wildlife, but then we also need to protect wildlife from people,” Nick Forman of the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish said.Many residents worry that a call to Game and Fish could mean relocation. Officials state that while relocation can be stressful for bears, it is sometimes the only option when animals become too comfortable around people and face risks like traffic, disease, or conflicts in neighborhoods.Officials advise residents to secure potential attractants to prevent these situations.”Please put away those food sources, put away the trash, put away the dog food, bring down your bird feeders during the summer,” Forman said.If a resident does come in contact with an aggressive bear, the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish advises to stay calm, speak loudly and confidently, make yourself appear bigger, and slowly back away while keeping the bear in sight.\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tALBUQUERQUE, N.M. \u2014 \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
A black bear was spotted roaming a Northeast Heights neighborhood Tuesday morning. While residents say bear sightings are not unusual in the foothills, water and fruit trees often attract the animals to the area.<\/p>\n
Foothills resident Brad Carvey lives nearby and is no stranger to the wildlife.<\/p>\n
“I’ve seen black bears this year. This morning, early this morning, like 2 or 3 in the morning,” Carvey said. “We’ve had bears in our yard off and on for the last ten years.”<\/p>\n
Carvey noted that the bears regularly pass through the area looking for an easy meal before moving on, recalling a specific instance in his yard.<\/p>\n
“We had a mother with cubs,” Carvey said. “And the mother would climb up the tree and break off branches which had fall to the ground. And then the cubs would eat the cherries off the branches on the ground.”<\/p>\n
Carvey said that the animals are generally hesitant to interact with humans.<\/p>\n
“Black bears are more afraid of you than you are of them. They’ll usually run away at the slightest provocation,” Carvey said.<\/p>\n
For neighbors in the area, sharing space with wildlife comes with living near the foothills.<\/p>\n
“It’s part of our heritage, and we want to respect that wildlife and make sure that they have the space to continue to raise their families and live out their lives,” Stacey Sutton Kerby of Animal Protection New Mexico said.<\/p>\n
However, a black bear seen waltzing down the side of the road Tuesday morning, and Sutton Kerby noted that is when these encounters can become dangerous.<\/p>\n
“They could be hit by a vehicle. We don’t want any bears or any people hurt,” Sutton Kerby said. <\/p>\n
When bears venture into these areas, the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish steps in.<\/p>\n
“We need to protect people from wildlife, but then we also need to protect wildlife from people,” Nick Forman of the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish said.<\/p>\n
Many residents worry that a call to Game and Fish could mean relocation. Officials state that while relocation can be stressful for bears, it is sometimes the only option when animals become too comfortable around people and face risks like traffic, disease, or conflicts in neighborhoods.<\/p>\n
Officials advise residents to secure potential attractants to prevent these situations.<\/p>\n
“Please put away those food sources, put away the trash, put away the dog food, bring down your bird feeders during the summer,” Forman said.<\/p>\n
If a resident does come in contact with an aggressive bear, the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish advises to stay calm, speak loudly and confidently, make yourself appear bigger, and slowly back away while keeping the bear in sight.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A black bear was spotted roaming a Northeast Heights neighborhood Tuesday morning. While residents say bear sightings are…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":697387,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[12863,302035,78049,16638,302038,302036,302037,79,201,132354],"class_list":["post-697386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-albuquerque","tag-animal-protection-new-mexico","tag-bear-sighting","tag-black-bear","tag-neighborhood-wildlife","tag-new-mexico-department-of-game-and-fish","tag-northeast-heights","tag-science","tag-wildlife","tag-wildlife-safety"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/697386","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=697386"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/697386\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/697387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=697386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=697386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=697386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}