Black Bear Caught On Video In Coventry Backyard

COVENTRY, RI — Home security footage showed a black bear walking through a backyard and drive near Hope Furnace Road Friday.

The bear can be seen in the following videos walking through the Coventry resident's driveway and backyard. Turn to 10 News reported the bear was on the property for about 10 to 15 minutes.

"We’ve never seen him before but hoping (we) to see him again," the family told Turn to 10 News.

Although it's rare to see a black bear as far south as Rhode Island, research from the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management (DEM) says there is some of evidence of their populations rising.

"With the emergence of modern wildlife management practices and philosophies in the early 1900s, bears and many other species of wildlife were afforded protections under federal and state laws," DEM research said. "Additionally, as many farms in the Northeast were abandoned, regeneration of forests created suitable habitat. Black bear populations have been slowly increasing throughout Southern New England in recent decades."

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