RICHMOND, Va. -- Videos of bear sightings in Central Virginia have been spreading around social media in recent days.
The most recent sighting happened on early Friday morning across from J.R. Tucker High School in Henrico.
"At first I thought it was just a black dog that was loose, so then I looked and I said, oh no, that's a bear," Joyce Dykes, who spotted the bear on Friday morning, said.
The bear was heading in the direction of Joyce's house, prompting a quick phone call back to those at home.
"The dogs are outside, make sure the dogs are inside because there's a bear running in the backyard."
It's the time of year that young male cubs are often spotted by the public.
"It's a common occurrence every year," David Garst, a biologist with the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources, said. "We get this large influx of young males that mama has just kicked out."
When people spot these bears in the city, Garst said that the cubs are 18 to 24 months old and weigh around 75 to 100 pounds.
"You get this big shuffle from about mid-May to mid-July and we'll get bears come in the city and they're roaming around looking and they kind of figure out on their own they don't like it in the city and they usually find their way back out," Garst said.
Garst spent Friday morning looking over an area where a bear had been recently spotted.
"I came to Petersburg today because there's a bear running around in this neighborhood and I wanted to check some dumpsters at some food places by here and make sure they're not inadvertently doing things to keep the bear wanting to stay."
Trash cans tend to be an obvious choice for bears to try and find food. In turn, Garst suggests that people shut them tightly and put them up when they can.
For Joyce, her Friday morning wildlife spotting has left her cautious.
"Now every time I come out, I'm looking around like, is there a bear anywhere, am I going to see a bear?"
Garst said that people need to understand if they do see a bear, they should keep their distance, not approach it and let it keep going,
He said that bears will find their own way out of the city.
While most of the time these bears are not dangerous, they do have the potential to be.
