Spotting Hoquiam’s Winnie the Pooh

By Matthew N. Wells The Daily World • November 3, 2022 1:30 am
Provided photo A young black bear was spotted wandering between Lawrence Drive and Gale Street on Halloween night in Hoquiam, according to a Hoquiam Police Department Facebook post. The featured six-second clip shows the bear gallop across the street and then mosey behind a mailbox before it heads downhill and out of sight. Washington state Department of Fish and Wildlife was made aware of the situation.
Provided photo A young black bear was spotted wandering between Lawrence Drive and Gale Street on Halloween night in Hoquiam, according to a Hoquiam Police Department Facebook post. The featured six-second clip shows the bear gallop across the street and then mosey behind a mailbox before it heads downhill and out of sight. Washington state Department of Fish and Wildlife was made aware of the situation.

A black bear was spotted running between Lawrence Drive and Gale Street on Halloween night, according to a Hoquiam Police Department Facebook post.

The six-second clip shows the bear gallop across the tree-topped street before it heads behind a mailbox. The clip ends with the bear running downhill and out of sight.

Tom Taylor, animal control officer for the Hoquiam Police Department (HPD), said the black bear was probably a “young” bear. He also explained what happens when a person sees a bear and reports it.

“Usually what we do when we get a call like that is we call Fish and Wildlife and we give them the information of where the bear was spotted so they can go out and check and see 1) if it’s hanging around the area and 2) if it was just going out to someone’s trash,” Taylor said. “In most cases, it’s going after trash people leave out because (the bear) is getting ready to hunker down for the winter.”

Taylor, who’s worked for HPD for seven years, said he’s had a couple of complaints of bear sightings over the years but now they’ve been either from a bear getting into a person’s trash receptacles, or walking by somebody’s house.

“We haven’t had any issues of them getting into homes or anything else like that, which is good,” Taylor said.

While there have been a few bear sightings this year, it’s mostly from someone seeing a bear’s tracks or seeing their garbage can knocked over, according to Taylor.

“Outside of that, it’s where they’re feeding — mostly on the north end or like on Beacon Hill — because there are a lot of places they can sleep and hide,” Taylor said. “They’re afraid of us as much as we’re afraid of them. Actually, they’re probably afraid of us more than we’re afraid of them.”

To avoid having “Pooh” bear and his rumbling stomach finding something sweet inside of a garbage can full of old pizza crusts and other food waste is to not leave garbage out early. Another way is to be careful about feeding pets.

“A lot of people feed their cats outside and they feed the stray cats outside,” Taylor said. “And then people feed the dogs outside. If they’re any close to bears, bears will be in those areas because they can come and get food.”

Tips from HPD for anyone who comes in close contact with a bear:

• Stop, remain calm and assess the situation. If the bear seems unaware of you, move away quietly when it’s not looking in your direction. Continue to observe the animal as you retreat, watching for changes in its behavior

• If a bear walks toward you, identify yourself as a human by standing up, waving your hands above your head and talk to the bear in a low voice — but don’t use the word “bear,” because a human-food-conditioned bear might associate “bear” with food as people who feed bears will say “here bear.”

• Don’t throw anything at the bear and avoid direct eye contact, which the bear could interpret as a threat or a challenge

• If you cannot safely move away from the bear or the bear continues toward you, scare it away by clapping your hands, stomping your feet, yelling and staring the animal in the eyes. If you are in a group, stand shoulder-to-shoulder and wave your arms to appear intimidating. The more (the bear) persists, the more aggressive your response should be. If you have pepper spray, use it

• Don’t run from the bear — they can run 35 mph. Don’t climb either as black bears can climb and could follow you up the tree

Taylor also wants to remind people how residents in Grays Harbor County live where the wild animals are. The wild animals — cougars, raccoons, etc. — have been seen as well.

“For cougar sightings, we’ve had like three in two weeks,” Taylor said. “We live in an area where that was their property before people moved close to them.”

As far as responding to a report of a bear or other predator, it will only be shot in a specific situation, Taylor explained.

“If (the bear’s) actually an active danger to humans, if they have to shoot it, they’ll shoot it then,” Taylor said. “Most times, if it’s not an active danger to humans, but it could be, they’ll live-trap it and see if they can get it out of the area. They need to find out if it’s got cubs or not. If it’s a female bear, they need to find out if it’s got cubs because they need to take the cubs with the (mom.)”

Anyone who sees a bear should call HPD’s non-emergency number — 360-532-0892.

And outside of that, stay out of the way of the species that inspired A.A. Milne. And realize bears and other wildlife are not going away.

“People don’t think about the consequences of getting rid of a lot of wildlife,” Taylor said. “If you make it unbalanced for wildlife, if you take away their food source — their normal, natural food source — they are going to come into the cities more. That’s why you have coyotes sleeping in the city limits. Sometimes you even have cougars sleeping in the city limits. You just don’t see them.”