Bear spotted in Davis, sought by animal control, police say
A small brown bear was reportedly seen in West Davis on Wednesday morning, police said.
Authorities received reports of a bear last seen around 7 a.m. near the West Davis pond, west of Highway 113 along Arlington Boulevard and Shasta Drive, according to a text message alert by the Davis Police Department sent just after 8:30 a.m.
“Animal Control Officers are in the area looking for the bear,” the message said.
Anyone who sees the bear should use caution and not approach it, but should call 911 immediately, police say.
Police posted video from a Ring home surveillance system to Facebook that shows a bear walking up and down a residential driveway.
No other details were immediately available.
Bear sightings are uncommon but not unprecedented in the Davis area. Last June, a California black bear that weighed approximately 100 pounds was spotted near Solano Park early one morning. It made its way toward the arboretum on the UC Davis campus. The bear ran up a tree at one point, and was later tranquilized without incident about 2 1/2 hours after it was first spotted, loaded into a fish and game trailer and released into the wild about 90 minutes away from Davis, fitted with a tracking collar.
State Department of Fish and Wildlife Officer Kyle Glau said it was unclear where the bear came from in the June incident, and that it’s “uncommon but not impossible for bears to be in the area.” One wildlife professor tweeted during last summer’s sighting, though, that a bear on the UC Davis campus “is an extremely rare and unusual circumstance.”
This story was originally published April 29, 2020 at 8:48 AM.
