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Bear Wandering Around Apartment Complex Next To Elementary School
May 22, 2012
A young bear has been spotted several times at a Cantonment apartment complex, right next to a school.
The young black bear was first seen on Sunday, walking about the Wild Oak Farms Apartments, just north of the Grocery Advantage on Highway 29. The apartment complex property is directly adjacent to Jim Allen Elementary School.
“That’s a lot of people in danger as long as this bear is still around,” said resident Nicki McLaughlin. “People in the area should know about this.”
An officer from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission responded to the apartment complex on Sunday. He described the bear as a young male, probably less than 125 pounds and about two years old.
The FWC says it’s actually a bit rare for bears to be spotted as far west as Cantonment. While the FWC said the bear does not seem dangerous, the public should not approach or provoke the animal.
The management of the Wild Oak Farms Apartments distributed a letter to tenants on Monday, asking them to leave the bear alone.
During his Sunday visit, the bear reportedly tore into trash and rummaged through a dumpster, but many apartment residents described him as otherwise seeming “friendly”.
FWC officers were back at the apartment complex on Tuesday with plans to capture the bear, but they were unable to locate him.
Pictured: A young black bear is roaming around a Cantonment apartment complex. Submitted photos for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Comments
25 Responses to “Bear Wandering Around Apartment Complex Next To Elementary School”
Our neighbor just called FWC as the bear was on their property and in plain view. Local police came and witnessed the bear on the property. FWC refused to come out. I guess they have more important things to do.
JUST WONDERING. HOW MUCH GARBAGE IS OR WAS LAYING AROUND THE DUMPSTER TO ATTRACT THE BEAR IN THE FIRST PLACE MAY WANT TO KEEP AN EYE ON THAT PROBLEM IF THERE WAS ANY.
why is the bear still here? , do we need to hire somebody to take appropiate action ,,, or can we get this matter , resolved ,,
the bear was spotted in a cantonment neighborhood today a few miles from the first area he was seen so looks like he is on the move.
I went to school there & did my student teaching there! While doing my student teaching at Jim Allen, there were other dangerous animals in the woods that we had to watch out for when we went out for recess! I was scared to death to take them out there to recess close to the woods, but I didn’t have a choice! About the bear… It’s cute but would be cuter in the zoo or way off in the wild! Right now, it could cause a lot of danger!
Never had bears or coyotes when I grew up in Cottage Hill. ,Now they are everywhere.”Nuttin like running Williams Ditch with a bear behind”!
He doesnt seem scared he seems used to people maybe hes lost used to eating or being feedd by others.
I live there…yep sure was and everybody live there (including kids) were outside…why would u put ur kids in broad danger like that is beyond…”hey kids lets play outside…its a perfect time to get eaten by the new visitor n the apartment complex”…**shrug**some people…im just saying.
Somebody’s been eating my fast food garbage.
All he has to do is go back across 95-A (you could re route traffic until he is scared across) to the 185 acre parcel of IP land that connects to the 3000 or so plus acres on the west side of Escambia river that he came from. There is plenty of habitat to support the bears.
Why not post a ‘No Bears Allowed’ sign?
Maybe they should release him into the National Forest over towards Baker? It’s a shame many of our native wildlife have no habitat to live in anymore, pretty soon the whole state of Florida will be nothing but subdivisions and strip malls.
and also at GEEWILLIES they got some slap yoself in the head cupcakes that he might be a lookin fer.
Have yall tried any of dem thangs? woooooweeeeee, now they good, and sweet, and worth taking home a couple.
OK FWC
Don’t bean bag him any where. Moving at a run anywhere is a bad idea since
that area does not have ANY WHERE FOR A BEAR TO GO. If you relocate him to the north a wooded area there are hunters up there who like to kill everything that moves they will just shoot him. I want to know WHERE you Plan to relocate this bear and WHEN. This is dangerous to bears and to people.
Poor thing looks VERY THIN. I’m going to try to reach JACK HANNA….he has plenty of room and I’m SURE would love to have him.
If there’s a young bear — there’s also a momma bear and a daddy bear. Remember the “Three Bears” story. Momma is in the woods scoping out the Grocery Advantage dumpster. Be careful.
Scare the Bear!!! Fwc, I know y’all have to be smarter then that!!! If not it’s definitely time for a change in management over here!!! Relocate the bear, where he ain’t gonna wonder right back into a rural area!!! But first let him clean up some of the trash over there first.
Where are they going to scare him to? The only wooded area is across the old highway behind the apartment complex. There’s a pretty big patch of woods back there (my daughter and I have seen a couple large bucks back there) but there doesn’t seem to be enough room for a bear.
Maybe he should head down the block to Gee Willies! They got them fresh chickens running around outside plus them leftovers in the dumpster.
The bean bag gun sounds like a very bad idea to me too. A dangerous idea in that particular location. I hope they do NOT do that. Trap and relocate sounds much more sensible.
Please understand, bears are not “friendly”, they are wild animals and can kill you or hurt you badly! They are looking for food and are fully capable of killing a man, never mind a child or small person. They would prefer to go through trash or your garden or eat your dog’s food (or cat food) so don’t leave food outside and keep an eye out for this animal. If it doesn’t find food it will move on to another location.
Why did they not relocate the bear on Sunday? Why wait until Tuesday?
Now hold on just a minute! Isn’t that unfair? Did anyone actually SEE him littering up the place? Could be he’s just the “Patsy Bear” for those pesky, mischevious raccoons, opossums, feral cats, & stray curs! The “Fall Guy Bear”.
If you could have caught photos of him tearing things up, instead of shots of him wandering around a trashy area, I’d be more easily convinced. Maybe FWC could release him on some of the conservation lands out this way. Far away from the horrible temptations of the dumpster or schoolhouse. I’ll bet he’d love some of that pink slime they put in the cafeteria’s nuggets, eh?
deBugger – attempting to find the humor in what could be a bad situation
Looks like the young critter might would go elsewhere if it wasn’t for a buffet of thrash to plunder in at the apartments. It may even be dumpster diving behind the Grocery Advantage. Times are hard these days and a free snack is hard to pass up!!!
This is just plain scary. He definitely should be removed as opposed to scaring him away. He looks hungry (very thin) and looks like he’s already found ‘easy pickins’ around there. He would just come back if they tried to scare him away.
“FWC officers plan to be back at the apartment complex on Tuesday, possibly trapping and relocating the bear or scaring him away with a bean bag gun.”
I hope they don’t try “scaring him away with a bean bag gun.” This bear could potentially end up in the middle of Highway 29 or Old Palafox and wreak havoc repeating the accident with fatalities that happened recently with car versus horse in Molino. I don’t ride a motorcycle but there are a lot of motorcycles riding up and down Highway 29. Think about it!