WEST BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) – A second Black bear has been killed in West Baton Rouge, but this time it was hit by a car.
Thursday morning, a bear was walking along interstate 10 attempting to cross when it was hit by a car. The West Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff’s Office said, the person involved in the accident was not injured.
This is the second bear sighting within a week in West Baton Rouge. Last month a bear was seen roaming a neighborhood, climbing into a tree before coming down a day later.
The Department of Wildlife and Fishery said, bear sightings in this area are common because of where they migrate from.
“They come from Coastal Louisiana, so the movement he made up through that parish and one to i-10 is a natural behavior for a four-year-old male,” said Program Manager of Large Carnivore at Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, Maria Davidson.
These bear incidents have brought out the crowds and officials say that could make the situation more dangerous.
“If they are kind of dead set on traveling in a direction and there’s a neighborhood or town in its way, it’s not uncommon for a bear to kind of get hemmed in and it takes him some work to figure out his way of getting through town and those are the situations that escalate,” said Davidson.
“If you see a bear, stop call the sheriff’s office don’t get out of your car and stay away from them,” said Public Information Officer of West Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Office, Zachary Simmers.
It is likely that more bears could be seen in this area. If you see one, officials say step away slowly.
“The best thing to do it to back away slowly and let the bear go and do what it’s going to do and move on. They don’t tend to be confrontational by nature and would avoid humans if they could,” said Davidson.