Over a month after a young male bear was spotted in Chevy Chase and Bethesda, Maryland, a new bear caused a ruckus in Northeast D.C. Friday, running on the streets and climbing a tree.
The Metropolitan Police Department responded to a residence in the 1300 block of Franklin Street NE at 7:28 a.m. The black bear, sex and age undetermined, was resting on a trio of branches in a tree.
The bear stayed aloft for two hours 40 minutes before descending and deciding to roam the streets.
MPD is currently on the scene of a large black bear in a tree in the 1300 block of Franklin Street, NE. There are road closures in the area. Animal Care and Control is responding. pic.twitter.com/wX0nKmhXF3
— DC Police Department (@DCPoliceDept) June 9, 2023
This let police, along with a veterinarian from the National Zoo and animal welfare activists from the Humane Rescue Alliance, tranquilize the bear at 10:15 a.m.
While the bear wandered in the District of Columbia, Twitter user @Miss_J_Lilly spotted the animal at the intersection of 14th Street NE and Monroe Street NE at 6:21 a.m.
The intersection is half a mile away from where the bear climbed the tree.
A bear was just reported in a tree along Franklin Street in Northeast DC. There was a prior sighting of that same bear at 14th and Kearny Streets. #DC pic.twitter.com/1sZjspInEE</ a>
— DMVSHITLIT (@InsideThaDMV) June 9, 2023
Within neighboring Maryland, the black bear population originates in the northern counties of Garrett, Allegany, Washington and Frederick, which host a breeding population of about 2,000 black bears.
Spring marks the end of hibernation and the end of the maternity cycle for black bear mothers, who push out their young in order to start the biennial reproductive cycle anew. While female bears are allowed to stay in the territory of other male bears, young males are not tolerated.
These young males, driven out of their habitat and in need of food, have gone farther afield in their search, as population growth among the bears has crowded out more territory near the home base of the population.
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