CLARK COUNTY — The black bear sightings continue to grow in the Miami Valley.
[DOWNLOAD: Free WHIO-TV News app for alerts as news breaks]
Since last week, News Center 7 has been reporting on different black bear sightings across the Miami Valley. The latest comes from Clark County.
America’s Wildlife and Pest Control in Bethel Township shared a security video on social media Wednesday morning showing a young male black bear walking in their driveway.
TRENDING STORIES:
- Woman dead after being struck with machete while riding motorcycle; Suspect in custody
- ‘Saw our friendly neighborhood bear;’ Homeowners react as black bear sightings grow in Miami Valley
- Search for missing father continues after 5-year-old’s body found in river
“Here at America’s Wildlife and Pest Control, we see a lot of strange things and hear a lot of tall tales; however, this is not one of them,” they wrote in the post.
A bear was also spotted in a New Carlisle family’s backyard Monday night. This time, the bear didn’t just wander around; it created a little trouble.
“I had walked out and noticed that I kind of had trash scattered around, and thought, ‘Oh man, a raccoon has gotten into my trash,’” Jordan Rose said.
Rose decided to check her Ring camera at that point and got a big surprise.
“That is a bear! So I ran inside and showed my son, and called my husband,” Rose said. “And I was like, ‘Oh my God, there was a bear in our backyard and it was just crazy!’”
In the video, the bear goes out of sight, but Rose said she could hear why she spotted trash everywhere. As shown on News Center 7 at 5:00, she showed our team the claw marks the bear left on her trash container. The bear apparently smelled a food source.
“We had some chicken that had expired, and our trash was pretty ripe from the heat,” she explained.
The Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) is tracking local reports of bear sightings. Previously, a black bear has been spotted in Clinton, Greene, and Montgomery counties. They have not confirmed if all of the sightings have been of the same bear, which appears to be around two years old.
If the sightings are all of the same bear, he may be earning a nickname due to the miles he’s covering.
“The marathon bear,” Rose said. “He’s making quite a marathon.”
ODNR experts tell people to stay far away from the bear and to remember that black bears are protected in Ohio.
To learn about how to submit a sighting, click here.
[SIGN UP: WHIO-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter]
©2025 Cox Media Group
