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Bear’s spring tour continues, live in N. Kingstown

01:00 AM EDT on Friday, May 30, 2008

By Arline A. Fleming

Journal Staff Writer

NORTH KINGSTOWN — More bear reports, but this time from North Kingstown.

It seems the black bear that found itself wandering the streets of a Narragansett neighborhood this week decided to head north and west — if it’s the same bear.

North Kingstown Police Capt. Charles E. Brennan said residents called yesterday reporting that a black bear was seen near Casey Farm on Route 1A, then approximately five miles west in the area of Shermantown Road and the Smith Berry Farm — where the blueberries have yet to ripen — about 9:30 Wednesday.

At dawn yesterday, a bear was reported at Pride’s Crossing Lane, which is also near Shermantown Road.

Brennan said the bear apparently sat in a front yard there before setting out into the woods.

Officers haven’t actually seen the bear in North Kingstown, he said. “We’re not putting out any special patrols,” he said. “There’s been no indication that the bear has been aggressive. It’s just looking for food.” He didn’t have any reports of damage.

“It’s a bigger area of woods,” said Steven H. Hall, chief of the Department of Environmental Management’s Division of Law Enforcement, who has been fielding bear calls for almost two weeks from several parts of the state.

“It’s been interesting to say the least.”

The black bear, thought to be about 110 to 125 pounds, was photographed by a DEM officer near a trash can in a Narragansett neighborhood on Tuesday.

The police took a number of calls from residents who spotted the bear on the South Kingstown side of Narrow River, and then on the Narragansett side. Narragansett Police Deputy Chief Dean Hoxsie said the bear was seen on a number of streets that day. But the last time it was spotted in his town was early Wednesday morning.

“No bear,” Hoxsie said yesterday.

afleming@projo.com