It was 4:30 a.m. last week when a bear knocked over a trashcan at a home on Daniel Drive in Southwest Reno. The entire thing was captured on a Ring home surveillance camera.
“I saw a bear,” said Karinn Kelly, the resident. “I thought at first it had to be a dog. I thought it had to be. There would not be a bear in this area."
The videos do not stop there. Neighborhood applications, like Nextdoor, are full of bear spotting videos.
So are there more bears or more video?
"What we are seeing happening is more people have cameras now,” said Ashley Sanchez with the Nevada Department of Wildlife. “More people are starting to notice that bears are in our neighborhoods but they've always been there."
NDOW says there is not a spike in bear reports. In fact, the number of calls is exactly the same as last year. The bears are gearing up for hibernation.
“Do not panic,” said Sanchez. “They just want food right now. They have a certain number of calories to build up before winter."
The chances of seeing a bear in the middle of the day is rare. NDOW says the bears will do their business in the middle of the night."
“They don't want anything to do with us,” said Sanchez. “They just want easy food."
NDOW recommends to make it more difficult for bears to get access to food. They say to protect trash cans, pick up fruit from trees, and to not panic if you come face to face with one.
"Move to a safe place if it's on your property and head inside your house and start clapping your hands,” said Sanchez. “Yell at the bear."
To report a bear in your neighborhood, you can call 775-688-BEAR (2327). However, NDOW will not respond to all calls. Instead, they will respond only if a bear becomes a problem or causes destruction in a neighborhood.
