Bear incident generates concern
Toolbox
By THATCHER MOATS STAFF WRITER - Published: October 13, 2009
MIDDLESEX – A young bear was hit on Interstate 89 northbound on Thursday morning, which snarled traffic briefly and prompted a response from state police and game wardens. But a game warden said it is not uncommon for a bear to be hit by a motor vehicle in Vermont, especially at this time of year.
The driver that struck the bear didn't stop, but Jacqui Willey, a 27-year-old Walden resident came across the scene, which she said was about a mile north of the Middlesex-Moretown exit.
"It was laying in the road and it was sitting on its haunches, which looked kind of bloody," she said, speaking of the bear, which she believes was born last spring. "It was kind of swaying around all dizzy and disoriented."
Willey said the collision took place at about 7:45 a.m., and she snapped a photo of the bear standing in the roadway.
The bear was in the road for a few minutes and then slipped away by going under a guardrail, said Willey.
Deb Lowe of Waterbury said she was on her way to work and witnessed the bear run into the median and then into the northbound lane directly into the side of an oncoming vehicle.
"I looked to the side and saw the bear bounce off the car and curl up in a ball," she said via e-mail.
Col. David LeCours, a state game warden, said on Thursday afternoon that authorities searched for the bear but weren't able to find it. There was no debris from the car that hit the bear, LeCours said, which may indicate the bear was not hit that hard.
Game wardens in Vermont respond to about 60 to 80 reports of bears killed by motor vehicles each year, said LeCours. And this time of year the chances a bear will be struck by a car increase because they travel more in their hunt for apples, acorns, beech nuts and other food prior to winter.
"It's not unusual for bears to get hit this time of year," said LeCours. "They feed rather heavily and may be moving quite a bit as they move from one food source to another."
The bear hit on Thursday happened to be in one of the few places in Washington County with a significant concentration of oak trees, which produce acorns, LeCours noted.
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