{"id":76190,"date":"2025-08-12T03:17:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-12T03:17:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/76190\/"},"modified":"2025-08-12T03:17:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-12T03:17:09","slug":"400-pound-black-bear-spotted-in-townsend-neighborhood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/76190\/","title":{"rendered":"400-pound black bear spotted in Townsend neighborhood"},"content":{"rendered":"

400-pound black bear spotted, residents warned to take precautions in Townsend, Mass.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tWELL, ERIKA JESSICA MASS WILDLIFE BELIEVES THIS IS A TWO YEAR OLD FEMALE BLACK BEAR WHO WAS CAUGHT ON CAMERA GRABBING A BITE TO EAT AT THE BIRD FEEDER HERE BEHIND ME. THE HOMEOWNER HERE SAYS BEAR SIGHTINGS LIKE THIS ARE PRETTY COMMON. HE JUST STOOD UP AND PULLED IT RIGHT DOWN. IT\u2019S NOT THE FIRST TIME IT HAPPENED. TOM WHITTIER SECURITY CAMERA CATCHING A TWO YEAR OLD BLACK BEAR SCOUTING A BITE TO EAT IN HIS TOWNSEND BACKYARD. HE COMES. HE EATS THE BIRDSEED. HE BREAKS THE BIRD FEEDER POLE, MAYBE TWO OR 3 OR 4 TIMES A YEAR, AND WE REPLACE IT. WHITTIER SAYS HIS WIFE SPOTTED THE BEAR FIRST YESTERDAY, BUT WHEN THE BEAR SPOTTED, HIS WIFE TOOK OFF, SHE YELLED TO ME, THERE\u2019S A BEAR AT THE FISH POND. SO I RAN OUT WITH MY CAMERA. SHE RAN BACK IN THE HOUSE BECAUSE SHE\u2019S A LITTLE SMARTER THAN I AM, AND HE TOOK OFF AS SOON AS SHE OPENED THE DOOR, AND HE RAN AROUND HERE AND RAN ACROSS THE STREET. TOWNSEND ISN\u2019T A COMMUNITY WHERE I\u2019M SURPRISED TO FOR THERE TO BE BEARS, MASSWILDLIFE SAYS. BLACK BEAR SIGHTINGS IN THIS PART OF THE STATE ARE COMMON, SAYING NOW IS THE TIME THEY\u2019RE FUELING UP FOR WINTER. REMEMBER, THEY DON\u2019T EAT FOR 4 TO 5 MONTHS DURING THE WINTER, SO THEY\u2019RE TRYING TO EAT ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING THEY CAN DURING THESE MONTHS, SAYING BACKYARDS AND BIRD FEEDERS MAKE FOR EASY EATS. THESE ARE RELIABLE SOURCES OF FOOD, SO BEARS CAN JUST GO, YADA YADA YADA. GETTING FREE MEALS AS THEY GO. FOR SOME, LIKE TOM WHITTIER, BLACK BEAR SIGHTINGS LIKE THIS ARE PART OF LIFE, BUT AS LONG AS YOU DO YOUR THING, YOU KNOW MOST EVERYTHING MINDS ITS OWN BUSINESS. NOW, MASS WILDLIFE SAYS IN ADDITION TO THE SEARCH FOR FOOD, THIS HOT WEATHER MAY ALSO HAVE BLACK BEARS SEARCHING FOR WATER MASS. WILDLIFE ENCOURAGES PEOPLE TO SECURE ANY FOOD, GARBAGE, BIRD FEEDERS OR SMALL LIVESTOCK TO AVOID ANY ENCOUNTERS WITH T\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

400-pound black bear spotted, residents warned to take precautions in Townsend, Mass.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"WCVB<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tUpdated: 6:05 PM EDT Aug 11, 2025\n\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\tEditorial Standards \u24d8<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\tResidents of a northern Massachusetts town are being warned to take precautions after a 400-pound bear was spotted several times in the area. Police said the bear was seen several times in the neighborhood around Mason and Greenville roads in Townsend. “The most recent sighting was (Sunday) around 5:30 p.m. while people were outside grilling,” police wrote.Resident Tom Whittier’s video shows the bear standing on its hind legs and pulling a bird feeder to the ground. After looking at the video, MassWildlife officials said they believe this is a female bear who may have her first litter of cubs this winter.Police urged anyone in the area to remove all bird feeders, secure trash and close all doors in the hope that limiting available, easy food sources will cause the bear to move elsewhere.\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tTOWNSEND, Mass. \u2014 \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Residents of a northern Massachusetts town are being warned to take precautions after a 400-pound bear was spotted several times in the area. <\/p>\n

Police said the bear was seen several times in the neighborhood around Mason and Greenville roads in Townsend. <\/p>\n

“The most recent sighting was (Sunday) around 5:30 p.m. while people were outside grilling,” police wrote.<\/p>\n

\t\t\"bear<\/p>\n

Resident Tom Whittier’s video shows the bear standing on its hind legs and pulling a bird feeder to the ground. <\/p>\n

\n\tThis content is imported from TikTok.
\n\tYou may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.\n<\/p>\n

After looking at the video, MassWildlife officials said they believe this is a female bear who may have her first litter of cubs this winter.<\/p>\n

Police urged anyone in the area to remove all bird feeders, secure trash and close all doors in the hope that limiting available, easy food sources will cause the bear to move elsewhere.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"400-pound black bear spotted, residents warned to take precautions in Townsend, Mass. WELL, ERIKA JESSICA MASS WILDLIFE BELIEVES…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":76191,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[14854,7438,54020,16638,29362,54016,54017,54018,22215,3590,1583,28977,54019,14857,79,36424,8915,54014,54015,4398,201],"class_list":["post-76190","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-area","tag-bear","tag-bird-feeder","tag-black-bear","tag-caution","tag-greenville-road","tag-mason","tag-outside-grilling","tag-p-m","tag-people","tag-police","tag-precaution","tag-recent-sighting","tag-resident","tag-science","tag-several-time","tag-sunday","tag-townsend","tag-townsend-neighborhood","tag-warning","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76190","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=76190"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76190\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76191"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}