Jerry Gardner, a resident of North Little Rock’s Park Hill neighborhood, writes to share a video clip from his Ring camera of a black bear ambling through his carport just before midnight Monday, April 25. The same bear, or perhaps another one, has been sighted in the Lakewood neighborhood as well.

Is it unusual to see a bear in the city?

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“It happens every year at this this time,” Keith Stephens, communications director for the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, said. “It’s usually yearling males who mom is pushing out of the den.”

Stephens said there’s nothing to be concerned about as long as you don’t corner the bear or force it into a tree. “We have more problems with crowd control than bears,” Stephens said.

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While it’s difficult to get an exact count of Arkansas’s black bear population, Stephens said the commission estimates between 5,000-6,000 in the state.

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