YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio - Spring is the time of year when we start to hear of bear sightings around the Valley. Sunday as word spread, folks started gathering to watch a bear cub wander around Youngstown's North Side.
 
Youngstown Police set up a perimeter, and called the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. Officers blocked off roads around Saint Elizabeth's Hospital near the Emergency Room after a bear cub decided to camp out in a tree at the intersection of Belmont and Parmalee Avenue. 
 
Scott Angelo, a Wildlife Supervisor Manager, with The Ohio Department of Natural Resources, said, "May, June, July is dispersal time for juvenile Black Bears from Pennsylvania. They come here to Ohio because they've been pushed out by their parents and they're looking for territory, food, things like that. It's typical to see the movements here in Ohio this time of year."
 
After it's hiatus in the tree for about an hour, the cub quickly climbed down, traveled down Caroline to where it found another tree in a parking lot behind Stambaugh Stadium. The bear was the talk of the town, and of students on campus, who came out to get a glimpse of the bear and snap a few photos. YSU students received a text from the University warning a bear might be on campus. Macen Whirrett and his friend were taking pictures. The Howland resident and student said, "It's not often you get within 40, 50, feet of a bear without being at a zoo. The bear is a lot faster than I thought a bear would be."
 
Police and Wildlife experts set up a perimeter to keep curious people a safe distance away, since even a cub or juvenile bear can cause damage. Authorities don't want the bear in areas where humans live, but they don't want to tranquilize the bear either. Scott Angelo, with ODNR, said, "Tranquilizing is a last option. Once we tranquilize the animal it takes about seven minutes for the drug to take effect. That bear can then travel a distance of one or two miles, and that is a large area to search for a bear that has now been drugged. When it wakes up it's not going to be very happy."
 
A few hours later by around 3:00 on Sunday, the bear was near the rail road tracks off McGuffey Road. Authorities who had to watch the bear's movements for hours, to ensure public safety, had to grin and bear it. Their hopes are the bear will find it's way out of the urban setting. Officials said the bear is likely trying to get away from us, and wants out of the area.