Local News

Bad enough the power’s been out, now there’s a bear

Marion police are warning residents to keep an eye out for a wayward bruin spotted near the Wareham line.

October 29, 2021

1 minute to read

Say a little prayer for the fine residents of Marion, Massachusetts. First, it was among the South Coast towns hard hit by this week’s nor’easter, suffering power outages that Eversource Energy is currently predicting won’t be remedied until 6 p.m. Saturday.

And now, there’s a bear there.

“WARNING!!” writes the Marion Police Department on Facebook, in a post that will presumably be inaccessible to many power-bereft residents whose phones have long since died. “There has been a black bear sighting on County Road at the Wareham/Marion line.”

Bear sightings have become more frequent in recent months, a phenomenon some experts attribute to warmer weather reducing the amount of time bears spend hibernating. But whatever the reason, they’re definitely here: Framingham experienced multiple sightings last spring, and a black bear nicknamed “Boo Boo” was spotted roaming the South Shore for more than a month this past summer, before meeting a sad end.

Beyond our borders, a bear was caught swiping Amazon packages off a porch in Connecticut, a California teenager made national news for swatting a bear off her back porch to save her dog, and an incident in Alaska — where bears are, presumably, just a part of daily life, like squirrels — inspired the Associated Press headline “Alaska woman using outhouse attacked by bear, from below,” which means exactly what you think it means.

The good news is you have to go back several years (in New England, anyway) to find an instance of a bear eating a family’s donkey. But you may want to keep Fido leashed for a while anyway.

The Marion police agree, advising on Facebook that “it is best to bring in bird feeders, secure your trash, keep dogs leashed and never let dogs chase or interact with bears.” (Good advice for anybody, really.) Also, they recommend, “If you do encounter a bear, try to remain calm, do not run away or approach the bear. Move away slowly and sideways.”

MassWildlife, meanwhile, estimates that there is a population of more than 4,500 black bears in the state, and that it is “growing and expanding eastward.” Might be time to hide your honey pots.