Black bear climbing through Lake Norman yard caught on video by neighbor

Was it a black bear? Or a really big squirrel?

That was the debate going on in the background of a video posted to the Nextdoor app on Thursday of what appeared to be a black bear climbing through someone’s backyard in Huntersville.

The video wasn’t long, about 12 seconds in length, and showed the bear standing near a clearing leading into woods, sniffing at the ground.

It’s not the first time a black bear has been sighted in a residential area in the Charlotte region this year. In May , a black bear was spotted in Cornelius. In June, the same black bear was seen in western Mecklenburg County .

A couple of weeks after that , a black bear was spotted in a wooded neighborhood near Mallard Creek Greenway.

The North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission is unlikely to respond to reports of bears unless they are a nuisance, an official previously told The Charlotte Observer.

Unlike grizzlies and other brown bears, black bears are unlikely to attack humans. Instead, once they pick up a person’s scent, they often run away.

To lower the chances of a black bear stumbling into your yard, wildlife experts advise not leaving trash overnight. Black bears also might be attracted to bird feeders. And be sure to clean grills and avoid leaving things with scents, like candles, outside or near open windows, Bearicuda.com recommends.

But if you do come across one, don’t run away, BearWise.org says. Instead, “back away slowly in the opposite direction and wait for the bear to leave,” according to the site.

“They look big and bad, but they’re not known to be aggressive animals,” N.C. Wildlife Resources Officer Sampson Parker previously told the Observer.

The first few weeks of August may be a “stress time” for bears because they are between food sources, according to the National Park Service.