A bear that was disturbing residences on Brushy Fork Road was finally caught late Wednesday evening. A witness estimated the large male bear weighed approximately 250-300 pounds.
BRIDGEPORT, W.Va. — Brushy Fork Road residents are used to seeing bears around their property, but not on their porches.
A bear that got too close to Harrison County residences was finally caught by the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources Wednesday night.
The bear had been causing problems at Kross Kreek Farm for a couple months, according to owner Joel Kirk.
“He was the first one to kind of have interacted with things,” Kirk said. “He was getting on the porch and knocking on the windows. He got into our trash cans. Then across the hollow, somebody confirmed a sheep got taken. They never could confirm it was the bear, but it was a large animal obviously.”
The affected residents reached out to the DNR when the problem continued.
“You just couldn’t scare him off,” Kirk said.
First, DNR tried to scare the bear away with rubber buckshot.
That didn’t seem to phase him, so the DNR representative decided to use a trap instead, Kirk said.
“It’s a piece of steel culvert, and it’s all welded shut,” he said. “It was right here in the front yard. When the trap shut, everyone could hear it.
It sounded like a gunshot going off.”
A few local residents went outside to check out the trap and got a look at the bear around 10:30 p.m.
Kirk said it was a large male that probably weighed 250 to 300 pounds.
“He was kind of feisty,” Kirk said. “Then he calmed down this morning.”
Kirk had assumed the bear was getting into his trash cans in the early hours of the morning.
“We thought the trap would go off at maybe 1 or 2 a.m.,” Kirk said. “Likely many times we’ve been right outside when he was at the trash cans.”
Honey buns enticed the bear to enter the trap, according to Kirk.
“Believe it or not, they put a honey bun trail from the trash cans to the trap…
