Bear Yearling On The Move Through Banksville Causes Neighborhood Stir
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- From her kitchen window in Banksville, Joy Swimkosky did a double take.
"It came right up by a shed there, and he stood therem and I said, 'Oh my God, it's a bear,'" said Swimkosky.
A neighbor snapped a picture. Then, when the animal went up the driveway next door, Swimkosy went up her own driveway.
"It saw me, turned around and ran across Russ's yard across, and down the hill," she said.
Swimkosky went right to her neighbor, Phoebe DiBello.
"She's like, 'I swear to God, there's a bear," DiBello said.
DiBello walked up Pocono Drive, and sure enough, saw it, too.
"It looked like a large dog. It was about to my hip height," DiBello said.
The Pennsylvania Game Commission believes it's the same yearling seen earlier in the day on Monday off of Banksville Road.
"Yearlings are going to disperse from their mother, and they are going to try to find a home," said Game Conservation Officer Tom Kline.
That consists of a protected area and a food source.
"Keep your bird feeders, take them in, keep you trash enclosed, don't have anything outside like that, and the bear will continue to move on," said Officer Kline.
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When a bear showed up in a Monroeville neighborhood on May 14, 2015, the Game Commission brought in its donut-baited trap and the cooperative bear waddled in.
Trapped bears are processed and taken somewhere more appropriate, but that's not going to be happening in Green Tree because after Pocono and Leon Road, the bear moved on west. It was last seen in a park behind the Green Tree Fire House.
"It's actually a good sign that it's continuing to move, that's what we want the bear to do," Officer Kline said.
It's only when they stick around a while that the Game Commission will bring in the trap.
The Game Commission says these yearlings are on the move right now, so if you do come across one their advice is to give it a wide birth, do not feed it and call the authorities.
