JACKSON, Tenn. (WBBJ) – A black bear first spotted near the Carroll-Henderson County line has been seen in multiple locations across Madison County, according to the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency.<\/p>\n
Viewers sent camera footage to WBBJ showing the bear near Christmasville Road and Henderson Road. Jackson resident Benita Ledbetter described watching the animal move between several yards in the area.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt came between my neighbor\u2019s yard and then it galloped across the street into this yard and then it went to the neighbors other yard and went behind the houses,\u201d Ledbetter said. \u201cSo where the bear is at I do not know, but I seen it for my own self.\u201d<\/p>\n
What residents should know<\/p>\n
TWRA said summer is when the agency receives more calls about bears, as the animals can cover long distances while searching for food and water. Officials warned residents not to approach the bear or attempt to track it, saying that can create a dangerous situation.<\/p>\n
Jackson resident Alex McAlpin said he spotted the bear on what had otherwise been a slow day.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know it was a pretty boring day, I wasn\u2019t, wasn\u2019t much going on at work so you know it made the whole day better,\u201d McAlpin said. \u201cRainy day, you know didn\u2019t think there was going to be much going on and I saw a bear and I was like huh that\u2019s pretty cool. Made the day pretty interesting.\u201d<\/p>\n
BearWise recommends the following steps to avoid attracting bears: securing trash and recycling, removing bird feeders, bringing pet food inside, and cleaning and properly storing grills and smokers.<\/p>\n
TWRA said if the bear is not disturbed, it will likely continue moving through the area.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 WBBJ. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSON, Tenn. (WBBJ) – A black bear first spotted near the Carroll-Henderson County line has been seen in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":755469,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[79,201],"class_list":["post-755468","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\/755468","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=755468"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/755468\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/755469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=755468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=755468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=755468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}