Upper Nyack Elementary School Field Day Canceled After Bear Sighting
UPPER NYACK, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) -- A bear has left neighbors on edge in Rockland County, after being spotted roaming near an elementary school.
As CBS2's Lou Young reported Friday, the medium-sized black bear was spotted multiple times running around near the Upper Nyack Elementary School, where and end-of-the-year field day had been planned for Friday.
The day of outdoor activities had to be called off.
The bear made no threatening moves, but appeared to be in search of food in the residential area just south of Nyack Beach State Park on the Hudson River.
The Clarkstown police called out extra units to roam the streets in the hope of herding the animal back into the wild.
"What we do is we ask people if you see the bear, just give us a call; report it. We'll keep an eye on the location of the bear," said Clarkstown police Officer Scott Walker. "We just ask people to please stay away from the bear. Don't feed it. Don't have a bird feeder in your backyard. Don't leave your garbage out overnight – things like that."
Cellphone video showed the animal – described by some residents as a motherless cub – just roaming around the neighborhood. CBS2's Young and his crew later found the bear up a tree.
Many worried that the bear might be dangerous to children and pets when it was running around on the ground. But once the bear got up the tree, the animal became an instant spectacle – drawing a crowd of picture-takers and gawkers on Midland Avenue before police directed them to move along.
"He was up on our street this morning. One of our neighbors wound up going face to face with him – I think she said about 7:30 in the morning," said Dennis Yaklofsky of Upper Nyack. "He's been around all day."
"He probably doesn't know how to get back to his home, I imagine," said Jen Marraccino of Upper Nyack. "I don't know."
Police said they do not want the bear to become too accustomed to humans and were trying to get it back into the woods.
