Belleville residents report more bear sightings. Where is he headed next?

The Haile family had a rare visitor outside their home Tuesday morning when they saw a black bear strolling down Granvue Drive off West Main Street in west Belleville.

Justin Haile snapped photos of the bear, including one where the bear is walking next to a city of Belleville trash can.

On Monday, the bear was seen in the courtyard of the senior living community at the National Shrine of Our Lady of the Snows, which also is in west Belleville.

Tammy Sinn, a physical therapist assistant / program director, took a video of a black bear seen outside the Benedictine Living Community At The Shrine in west Belleville. There also were multiple bear sightings reported in Monroe County on Sunday.

Ruth Arlene Moore, a certified nursing assistant at the Benedictine Living Community At The Shrine, said she spotted the bear outside the senior living center at about 3 p.m. Monday and started taking photos.

Moore, who has seen black bears previously while traveling in the Great Smoky Mountains, said it was an “eventful” day at the center on Monday.

“It was something you don’t see every day,” she said with a smile.

This is a male bear that likely swam across the Mississippi River from Missouri, where there is a growing population about 900 bears. Wildlife experts say black bears are excellent swimmers and that additional bear sightings are expected in Illinois.

Don Schachner, an Illinois conservation police officer, advises metro-east residents to not approach the bear and to not feed it.

“If you like the bear and you want what’s best for the bear, the best thing is to give it its space, back away, don’t crowd it. Don’t stress it out. Don’t make it feel threatened,” Schachner said.

Schachner said male bears are focused on two things: finding food and finding a female bear. They can travel long distances in a short amount of time.

“I just hope he cruises through the Belleville metro-east area without too many problems,” Schachner, who noted the path of a wandering bear can be unpredictable.

Conservation police officers will respond to a scene if a bear has been chased up a tree and there is a crowd of people. Otherwise, the officers intend to let the bear continue moving on his way.

“Typically he is not going to go up a tree unless he feels threatened,” Schachner said. “And usually, if that happens, well then that’s because somebody’s been doing something, you know, foolish. So, yeah, then we want to get involved, because once he’s up a tree, he’s not going to leave that tree until he feels comfortable and the situation is safe.”

In the “unlikely” case that a bear enters someone’s house or garage, conservation police officers would respond to the scene, Schachner added.

The bear seen in Monroe and St. Clair counties this week is likely different from the one seen in Pope, Saline, Williamson and Jackson counties in July, Schachner said. This bear likely entered Illinois by swimming across the Ohio River from Kentucky, according to the bear program coordinator in Kentucky.

The bear sightings in southern Illinois this summer follow sightings in 2021 when a bear was seen in Monroe, Clinton, Washington and Franklin counties and another one was seen in Randolph County in June 2023.

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