Young Black Bear Roaming South Brunswick/Princeton

South Brunswick, NJ - As of Monday July 4, there have now been at least four reported sightings of a young black bear, pictured above, in South Brunswick Township and the Princeton area. It may be the same bear, but that is not confirmed.

A young black bear was seen in Ridge Road resident Andra Camerota's backyard on Thursday, TAP Into reported. It may be the same bear that wandered into her yard on June 26, when it sat in her driveway eating birdseed before being chased off by her cat. The bear is pictured above, in a photo Camerota took in her backyard, and gave to South Brunswick Police.

Another bear, possibly the same animal, was seen three times over the weekend in woods near Princeton, the Princeton Patch reported. The first sighting in Princeton was reported Saturday night, when the bear was seen running into Herrontown Woods off Herrowntown Road. On Sunday morning, police reported that the bear had been seen in the area of Clearview Avenue and Tee-Ar Place. Then on Monday, July 4, a resident reported seeing the bear on Herrontown Road near Autumn Hill Road. Responding police patrols were unable to find the bear, police said.

There were also sightings on June 26 of the bear near the Doubletree Hotel on Rt. 1, police said. In all the sightings, the bear appeared to be a juvenile.

South Brunswick police put out a warning Friday about all the bear sightings. Black bears may use backyards as part of their natural travel corridors, according to the state Department of Environmental Protection. The mere presence of a black bear is not considered a problem. Generally, bears tend to be wary of people, police said.

However, black bears learn very quickly and bears that are fed intentionally or unintentionally by carelessly leaving out food or garbage will associate people with food. Bears will eat almost anything including human food, garbage, pet food, birdseed and small livestock. Once they find an easily accessible food source, like garbage in a housing development, they will lose their wariness of people and may return to the available food source.