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Black bear sighted in county
bear
Photo of the bear spotted in the Rock Island area Wednesday.

 

A local woman has reported the sighting of a black bear not far from the Smithville city limits.

 

Patricia Hale, a resident of Robinson Road, said she was greeted Friday morning by a small black bear in the bean field beside her home.

 

“I walked out into my front yard, and there were some people passing in a Chevy Blazer on the road who said ‘You’ve got a black bear in your field.’ I didn’t believe it at first, but I turned around and there it was. It was just ambling along in the field.”

 

She said the creature was not that big, indicating that it was less than waist high when down on all fours.

 

“It looked like a cub, but you could tell it was a bear by the way it moved. The people in the Blazer started yelling and laughing, and the bear got spooked and ran into the woods across the road.”

 

A bear sighting was reported Thursday evening on Patterson Road, and TWRA officials believe the animal could be the same bear spotted in the Rock Island area Wednesday morning.