2019 Was a Year Full Of Surprising Encounters With Bears All Around The US

It's Wild Out There!

As humans continue to take up more and more space, bears encounters are becoming more common, with the animals venturing out of the woods into more civilized areas, often in search of an easy food source — like a dumpster or snacks left behind by campers. But the summer of 2019 was extraordinary as the big, furry creatures have spent it crashing weddings, making pit stops at hotel bathrooms and other shenanigans, all over the US, as mapped in the map below.

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01
During 2019, there were 7 recorded encounters with those curious creatures:

via people
02
September 2019 in Bradford, Pennsylvania:

via KGET News

Security cameras at a Pennsylvania middle school captured footage of a young bear roaming the halls of the building after popping a window out of its frame. The footage shows the bear rooting around the hallways of Fretz Middle School in Bradford after shoving its way in through a window.
03
September 2019 in Gatlinburg, Tennessee:

via ABC7 Chicago

Corey Brewer and Sarina Thompson got quite the surprise when they realized a black bear photobombed their wedding pictures. The couple was posing for photographs in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Gatlinburg, Tennessee after tying the knot when a black bear wandered into their venue, according to Storyful. The photos show the bear wandering down the aisle, behind the newlyweds, and eventually, wandering off into the woods.
04
September 2019 in Big Sky, Montana:

via People

A young bear in Montana opted to take a more luxurious potty break in September, and stopped at the Buck's T-4 Lodge in Big Sky to do their business. The animal was discovered in the women's restroom sprawled out on the sink. The Gallatin County Sheriff's Office and Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks were able to safely remove the bear and release the animal in a more remote location.
05
August 2019 in Truckee, California:

via Fox6 News Now

As two teens watched TV at home late one night, little did they know that the person in the other room opening the refrigerator for a midnight snack wasn't a person at all. It was a bear. Police were able to corral the bear out the front door of the cabin and back into the wild.
06
August 2019 in Kings Beach, California:

via PlacerSheriff

Authorities received a call from a motel in Kings Beach that a bear cub was trapped in their dumpster. Authorities arrived and found two cubs trying to open the dumpster to rescue their apparent sibling, the Placer County Sheriff's Office wrote in a Facebook post. After busting loose from the dumpster, the bear cub joined their sibling and mom, who were waiting nearby, and ran off into the woods.
07
July 2019 in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire:

via Boston Globe

A worker at the Omni Mount Washington Resort in New Hampshire snapped photos of a bear appearing to take in the sunrise on a veranda late last month. Sam Geesaman, a bellman at the hotel in Bretton Woods, shot the photos after seeing the bear on the eastern veranda of the resort around 5 a.m. June 29, said Craig Clemmer, the hotel's marketing director. The bear, Clemmer said, was looking directly at Mount Washington. "It was not a registered guest," Clemmer joked. After letting the bear have their early morning moment of peace, a hotel employee was able to scare the bear off the property.
08
June 2019 in Missoula, Montana:

via Metro

A bear who felt a nap coming on decided to seek out an especially cozy spot to sleep and settled on the closet of a Missoula home. Authorities found the bear snoozing on the top shelf of a closet, and believe the animal ended up there after entering the home through the mud room and then accidentally locking the door behind them. For everyone's safety, officials tranquilized the bear and relocated the animal to the wild.