‘That happens more often’: Bear makes its way into downtown park

By Kristen Aguirre

Click here for updates on this story

    ASHEVILLE, North Carolina (WLOS) — Wild and city life collided in the middle of downtown Asheville on Thursday, April 21, when a black bear was spotted walking in the streets.

The situation had many observers scratching their heads —How did it get there?

According to Ashley Hobbs, a black bear biologist from the NC Wildlife Resources Commission, the answer is simple.

“It seems to have wandered in, probably because of trash, food, smells like that,” she said.

She said the city is the bear’s home.

“I think a lot of people don’t realize that the bears actually live downtown, right here,” Hobbs said.

Yes, in the city.

“We have bears that will den most years right off of 240, just a few feet off the interstate,” Hobbs said.

She also said Asheville has a high density of bears. As many as two-thirds of bear calls for the entire state come from Asheville and Buncombe County.

The bear that was spotted downtown on Thursday is no stranger to the city.

“The particular Bear that was down here had a collar. It was part of our urban-suburban black bear study here in Asheville,” she explained. “That bear is a particularly urban bear, as well.”

Hobbs said this bear probably follows the outskirts of Asheville, going down to A-B Tech and UNC Asheville.

“It’s likely that that happens more often than we know of,” Hobbs said. “We just don’t see them when we’re out and about around town.”

Hobbs said residents and visitors would probably see that bear again, but it’s our job to safely coexist.

“We can’t let them become comfortable around us because they’ll become what we call food-conditioned or habituated,” she said.

This means the bears lose their fear of humans and start seeing us as a food source. Hobbs noted when that happens, that’s when it becomes dangerous.

“The best rule of thumb is to keep a good distance from that bear,” she said. “Make sure they have escape routes when we do come into contact with them, but for the most part, these bears just want to get away from us.”

In video footage of Thursday’s wildlife encounter, Hobbs noticed the bear actually appeared scared.

“If you saw the video too, that bear just wanted to get away from people,” she said. “It just had some trouble finding a good escape route.”

Luckily, Asheville Police stepped in to guide the bear out of the city.

“We need to realize that we have more bears and more people in our area, in particular in Asheville,” Hobb said.

As a reminder, some bear-wise tips are to never approach or feed a bear, always secure your garbage and recycling, and remove any bird feeders when bears are active.

Please note: This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.