Wildlife officers and residents gather around a black bear caught on East Drive around 8 p.m. Saturday. (Photo submitted by Kelli Parsons)
An east Oak Ridge resident reported that a black bear was caught at about 8 p.m. Saturday.
The bear was caught at about the 390 block of East Drive, said resident Kelli Parsons, who submitted a photo taken by a neighbor.
“I stayed inside with my child once we heard it had been spotted,” Parsons said.
Several bears have been reported in Oak Ridge during the past two weeks. There was a young male bear that hopped fences and crossed busy streets from Key Springs Road to the Woodland neighborhood on May 22. The next day, Y-12 National Security workers reported a bear north of the plant and a mother and cub on the west end of Bear Creek Road.
Then, last week, residents in north Oak Ridge took pictures of a bear on Orchard Circle and Oglethorpe Place. This past Friday, Oak Ridge National Laboratory reported that the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency trapped a young male bear, about 150 pounds and two to three years old, near the High Flux Isotope Reactor. They took it to TWRA North Cumberland Wildlife Management Area in Scott County.
TWRA officers were not available for comment Monday afternoon.
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