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It seemed to be happening everywhere this past summer, north of Boston.

This is a very popular bear in Wilmington popping up out of hedges and onto lawns.

Near St. Paul, Minnesota.

You can see kids jumping off the playground equipment here to get a better view of the bear.

Just a few dozen feet away from them.

And much to my surprise, just a couple of miles from my house.

Just last week, two bear sightings in Arlington, maybe the same cub.

Whether bear sightings are actually happening more often or we've just become

working observers, human bear encounters are becoming far more frequent.

We're spotting the furry black carnivores everywhere from school playgrounds to shopping malls,

to lounging and backyard swimming pools, but how dangerous are bears who wander into our habitat?

Both for us and for the bear and what should we do?

Every state has its own rules and laws about bears.

So I can't speak to Virginia necessarily, but they're very similar for the most part.

And so what we say is like a fed bear is a dead bear.

Basically any bear that appears to be habituated to human presence,

they often have to euthanize it.

It's really sad. It's like pretty tragic.

And it's because if a bear doesn't have this natural fear of humans as it should,

that means it could potentially hurt somebody.

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