Brookfield Bear Caught a Bit Close for Comfort

BROOKFIELD, CT — Those Connecticut black bears: You forget how truly enormous they can be, until they get this close to you, and right on your doorstep.

Dawn Dodge of Fieldstone Road in Brookfield got a sobering reminder of how big those predators lurking just past the woodline can grow when one dropped by her home on Tuesday. As seen in the video she took, Smokey came right up to her front steps, thought better of it, than headed across the street in the directions of a neighbor's house.

From March 29 through Dec. 12, 2018, residents spotted 168 black bears wandering Brookfield neighborhoods, according to the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection — a;though most did not likely get as close as Ms. Dodge.

According to DEEP, ursus americanus can grow to be as large as 450 pounds, and they're making a comeback. We had wiped them out completely in Connecticut by the mid-1800s, but as farming waned and the forests grew back, so did our black bear population. Lately, annual sighting reports (tracked on the DEEP website) have increased dramatically, indicating a rapid increase in bear numbers.

What's that you say, "We wiped them out here once, you'd think they be smart enough to stay hidden?" Perhaps, but a bear's super power is his sense of smell, and food attractants near homes can cause them to grow habituated to humans and disturbances, such as dogs and other noises, according to DEEP. Bears can't help but be drawn to bird feeders, garbage, outdoor pet food, compost piles, fruit trees, and berry-producing shrubs.

If you see a bear on your property you can either leave the bear alone and wait for it to leave, as Ms. Dodge does below, or make loud noises from a safe distance to attempt to scare the bear away. After the bear leaves the property, remove anything that may have attracted it to the area, DEEP advises.