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sl8

(14,310 posts)
Tue May 14, 2024, 07:12 AM May 14

Injured bear in Manchester; PSA from Vermont Fish & Wildlife

https://manchester-vt.gov/index.asp?SEC=9F4A750F-D0E7-472D-A70C-A60E355E6239&DE=C57C71BE-630B-4BCB-9DC8-9177B95A0BD4

Friday, May 10, 2024 at 12:45 PM

Vermont Fish & Wildlife PSA: Bears in Manchester

The Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department urges Manchester residents to lock up their trash, grills, and other attractants, to help encourage a bear with a noticeable limp who has been looking for food around town to move on.

We understand Manchester residents are worried about this bear’s limp and want to help! We want to stress that helping this bear looks different than people may assume. There is no way to treat an adult bear for a limb injury. Trying to do that would be more traumatic for the bear than letting it recover naturally, and there are good odds this bear will recover on its own. The much greater threat to this bear’s quality of life is the danger of navigating busy roads while searching for human caused foods like garbage, bird feeders, compost, and chickens.

Despite its injury, this bear is fully capable of finding wild foods, but chooses to spend its time in Manchester because human caused foods like garbage are easy to find. And this bear is not the only bear regularly visiting Manchester in search of food. If Manchester residents do not take proactive steps as a community to secure garbage, take down bird feeders, protect chickens and beehives with electric fencing, etc, this bear and others will continue to come into town to find food and run the risk of becoming a danger to people and property.

Please help us reach a coexistence outcome, by securing the food sources that are keeping this bear and others in town. Remember, intentionally feeding bears is not only extremely dangerous, it is also illegal. You can learn more about how to prevent conflicts and be a good neighbor to Vermont’s bears at: https://vtfishandwildlife.com/learn-more/living-with-wildlife/living-with-black-bears

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Manchester journal article:

https://www.manchesterjournal.com/local-news/a-limping-bear-has-stirred-hearts-in-manchester-heres-how-you-can-help/article_a6881e6e-0ef4-11ef-ab50-e39570cd8e36.html

A limping bear has stirred hearts in Manchester — here's how you can help

By Cherise Forbes, Manchester Journal
May 10, 2024 Updated May 12, 2024

MANCHESTER — Manchester residents have been encouraged to lock up their trash, grill, and other items that may attract bears following repeat sightings of a large, limping black bear in downtown Manchester.

The injured bear is not the only one frequenting downtown Manchester – in fact, it is but one figure in a growing problem for the town and others like it.

“The community as a whole has been dealing with multiple bears regularly spending time in town for the last few years now,” explained Wildlife Biologist Jaclyn Comeau, who serves as Black Bear Project Leader for the Vermont Department of Fish & Wildlife. This bear in particular has been on Game Warden Kyle Isherwood’s radar since April, he said, with a call coming in about it every three or four days since.

Such encounters have historically been most frequent in rural areas, Comeau said, but that’s changed in recent years. Now, busier and denser areas like downtown Manchester are seeing a spike in bear activity.

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