How to stay safe with bear spottings back in the Seattle area

The bears are back in town.

Black bears have emerged fresh and hungry from their dens and are being spotted in residential areas, particularly in East King County. There have been several reports of black bears in the past month — one walking alongside a garden in Bellevue’s Newport neighborhood, a cub pawing at a bird feeder in Redmond, and last week a bear moving across a busy intersection in the Issaquah Highlands.

With the beginning of bear season, wildlife officials have stressed that residents should take precautions to avoid potential encounters with these rotund creatures.

Having lost up to 30% of their body weight in dens, bears will be looking for easy sources of food and often go after garbage cans, bird feeders or pet food canisters left outside, according to the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Bears can also smell — from up to a mile away — even smaller food sources, like crumbs left in a barbecue grill or fruit fallen from a tree. WDFW recommends thoroughly cleaning grills after every use and clearing fallen fruit.

There have been at least a dozen black bear sightings on the Eastside in the past month, according to reports submitted to Carnivore Spotter, a site that logs resident submissions as part of the Seattle Urban Carnivore Project, a partnership between Woodland Park Zoo and Seattle University.

On Wednesday, a black bear was reported in a developed area of Issaquah Highlands, and WDFW officers spoke with the Issaquah Police Department over concerns that the bear was near Swedish Hospital’s Issaquah campus and an apartment complex, spokesperson Jennifer Becar said. The bear left the area, and a conflict specialist didn’t see any signs of the bear while surveying the site Thursday morning.

The department says residents may be tempted to feed bears, especially when they appear thin early in the season, but they shouldn’t be provided food or allowed to be comfortable around people. Last year, an unnaturally large 5-year-old bear was trapped near Issaquah and killed because of his weight and habit of getting into human-provided food sources. The bear evaded capture for two years, but had been spotted raiding garbage, bird feeders and fruit trees dozens of times in residential areas. He weighed 352 pounds, about 150 more than an average bear.

Don’t run if you see a bear. Instead, wave your arms and shout, and don’t approach the animal. Fewer than two dozen incidents where a bear injured a human have been recorded since 1970, according to WDFW. There has been just one fatal attack, which occurred in 1974, when a 4-year-old girl was killed in Klickitat County.

Black bears number about 20,000 in Washington state. Wildlife officials receive about 500 complaints per year.