Thanks to cameras, Pittsburgh residents seeing bears

Pittsburgh — Mary Mele Abel awoke June 8 to find Ring camera footage of a black bear lumbering through the backyard of her Pittsburgh home on the edge of Frick Park.

Although she had once captured video of a deer that had fallen into her fish pond, the images of a bruin in the wee hours of the morning was a little surreal.

“It was unbelievable, since we live in the city and the houses are so close together here,” said Abel. “At first I thought, what the heck is that? It’s too big to be a dog. But it wasn’t very clear, so I woke up my husband and as soon as he saw it he said, Yep, that’s a bear.”

Her neighbor’s camera caught the bruin drinking at Abel’s fish pond.

Abel posted the video to the community Facebook page and found that others in her and adjoining neighborhoods were sharing sightings, too. One posted a photo of the bear sauntering down a street in broad daylight, and a man claimed to have seen the bruin along nearby Interstate 376.

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Several calls were made to the Pennsylvania Game Commission, according to State Game Warden Tyler Castranova, who said they weren’t unexpected.

“A warden from a different district in the north let me know that a bear was headed down this way,” said Castranova, who covers parts of Allegheny and Washington counties. “It was on the move to find some nice meals and a girlfriend.”

Based on photos, Castranova guesstimated that the bear weighed 150 to 180 pounds, and was 2 to 3 years old.

It likely had used heavily-wooded Frick Park as a rest stop before cutting through the adjacent neighborhood where Abel lives on its way to establish a new home range, Castranova said. “He probably eventually crossed the Monongahela River and continued on his way.”

Because it hadn’t been running fast, the Mon would have been navigable, he said, or the bear could have found a land bridge somewhere.

Although it had been spotted at times in daylight, most of the bear’s travels were probably under cover of darkness, Castranova said.

Prior reports

Reports of other bears passing through Pittsburgh in June have surfaced in recent years, including 2020, when a 250-pound bruin was discovered asleep in the backyard of a home in Pittsburgh’s Highland Park community.

It eventually was captured and transported to Fayette County by the Game Commission.

Allegheny County isn’t black bear country, although populations to the north and east are pretty robust, which may account for the occasional transient in spring.

A bear spotted at a bird feeder in suburban Ross Township in 2023 may have ventured from a northern area and was either looking for food, or on its way to find a new home range, former commission bear biologist Emily Carrollo speculated at the time.

A male’s home range is about 20 miles, and they can travel about 10 miles a day.

A black bear was even captured on the edge of downtown Pittsburgh in 2022, although what was unusual about that incident is that it was in late December.

The 260-pound male was found at a building complex that housed a culinary school with a dumpster that was keeping it well-fed. The site was less than half a mile from the old Civic Arena.

No population estimate

Although the number of bears actually living around Pittsburgh is believed to be small, the commission doesn’t have a solid population estimate, said Game Commission spokesman Travis Lau. “We don’t have the opportunity to handle and tag many bears which is fundamental to estimating bear populations.”

The commission wants to keep the number to a minimum, Lau said.

“Wildlife Management Unit 2B does have some bear harvest and there is an extended season there, which serves to keep the population low and minimize bear-human conflicts.”

Reports of foxes, coyotes, skunks, groundhogs, and deer are far more common in Pittsburgh and other cities, especially in spring, during baby season, and Castranova said he receives a lot of calls from people unaccustomed to dealing with wildlife.

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“It goes on throughout July and sometimes into August. People are seeing young animals, like a fawn sitting in their yard, and they aren’t sure what to do. We can explain things to them on the phone and there’s good basic information on Google.”

If circumstances warrant, Castranova will drive into the city. “People are usually very grateful,” he said.

While increasing development is no doubt pushing more wildlife into urban areas, wild animals – even the occasional transient bear – have probably always been around, but people are much more aware than ever thanks to the proliferation of security cameras like Ring, Castranova said.

“It’s probably 50-50 – that there’s more wildlife in the city but there are many more cameras to record it.”

Many Pittsburgh residents also are being exposed to hunting as a deer management tool since city officials last fall instituted controlled bowhunting in Frick and Riverview parks.  There was some pushback, but the program ran smoothly, with 108 bucks and does taken from September through January, officials said.

This year, the program will be extended to three other city parks – Schenley, Highland and Emerald View.