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Black Bear Surprises Mansfield Neighbors

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Jun 5, 2009 7:20 pm US/Eastern

Black Bear Surprises Mansfield Neighbors

Reporting
Peg Rusconi
MANSFIELD (WBZ) ― An unassuming visitor to a Mansfield neighborhood left quite an impression on neighbors Thursday night.

"A good-sized head… He was pretty wide. Think it was twice the size of our golden retriever," Kay Renault recalled.

But what she saw from her bedroom window was no dog. It was a black bear - standing under the light pole.

"It was just in the grass, toward the pole, and just gingerly mosied into the yard."

Nearby at Elaine Broderick's house, the bear checked out the garden and shed. Then he ambled across the street, through a hole in a fence, and back into the woods.

"It'll make me nervous," she said, "every time I hear a noise or something."

Mansfield and environmental police spent hours trying to track the bear down, without success.

Wildlife biologist Jim Cardoza said Kay and Elaine's friend has apparently been getting around. "For past two to three weeks we had reports of a bear in Dover and Medfield. Could be the same bear."

More Info: Black Bears In Mass.

This is the time of year when male bears are out looking for females, and last year's cubs leave their mothers in search of a territory to call their own. But bears in Mansfield are a rare sight. The creatures are much more common in the state's central and western reaches.

Cardoza said no person has been seriously hurt by a bear in Massachusetts in two centuries. He says black bears aren't aggressive by nature, but food can change the equation.

"Removing any kind of food attractant is the key to avoiding about any conflict with a bear."

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