{"id":807963,"date":"2026-05-19T17:45:24","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T17:45:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/807963\/"},"modified":"2026-05-19T17:45:24","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T17:45:24","slug":"pa-game-commission-traps-bear-near-allentown-monitoring-bethlehem-bear","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/807963\/","title":{"rendered":"Pa. game commission traps bear near Allentown, monitoring Bethlehem bear"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Pennsylvania Game Commission trapped a bear around 5:30 a.m. at 4238 W. Walnut St. in South Whitehall Township, near the Lehigh County Sports Fields, but the bear that was sighted multiple times in and around Bethlehem this weekend is still being monitored as it appears to be exploring territory along the Lehigh River corridor.<\/p>\n

It is typical to see young male bears, 1 to 2 years old, exploring new territory at this time of year, said William Car, the game commission\u2019s information and education supervisor for Southeast Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n

The bear that was trapped Tuesday morning in South Whitehall Township had seemed to settle into an area that was close to Allentown and major highways, raising safety concerns for the animal. It will be relocated, likely further north where it will be less likely to wander back down south into more suburban areas, Car said.<\/p>\n

The bear that was sighted multiple times in and near Bethlehem over the weekend<\/a> is still being monitored by the game commission, Car said. Unlike the bear seen near Allentown, the Bethlehem bear appears to still be exploring areas along the Lehigh River corridor, which is normal behavior for a young male bear and will not be an issue unless the bear settles into a more populated area in which it could come into conflict with human neighbors, he added.<\/p>\n

Black bears are generally shy around humans.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey typically just keep their distance,\u201d Car said, adding that black bears are so skittish there have been reports of bears taking to the trees in response to aggression from dogs as small as Yorkshire terriers.<\/p>\n

Young male bears exploring territory can move a lot of distance in a night, Car said, so they\u2019re not sure exactly where the bear that was sighted in Bethlehem is now, but the game commission will continue to monitor reports.<\/p>\n

Although the game commission welcomes calls to report bear sightings, their staff emphasizes that the best thing residents can do is use the resource bearwise.org<\/a> to learn more about how to remove outdoor food sources that can attract hungry bears.<\/p>\n

Bird feeders are one of the food sources that can attract bears, and the feeders are not needed to support most native Pennsylvanian birds, who prefer to forage, Car said.<\/p>\n

Outdoor trash cans can also attract bears, so residents should secure such cans in the garage until the morning of trash pickup, Car said. Those who do not have a garage can wait until the morning of trash pickup to put out food scraps if they want to make their cans less attractive to bears and raccoons, Car said. A more aggressive step would be to spray the cans with bleach to cut down on the smell and make the cans less attractive to wildlife.<\/p>\n

Car and other game commission staff are fielding lots of calls as the spring season brings juvenile wildlife into contact with humans, and he urged residents to avoid interacting with young animals such as fawns or fox kits, as such interactions can lead to well-meaning residents separating young animals from their mothers.<\/p>\n

As to young black bears, \u201cThey are cautious and they tend to run away,\u201d Car said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Pennsylvania Game Commission trapped a bear around 5:30 a.m. at 4238 W. Walnut St. in South Whitehall…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":807964,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[27],"tags":[104,5295,150432,728,50,2830,159,328579,3101,67,132,68,837],"class_list":["post-807963","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-breaking-news","tag-crime-and-public-safety","tag-lehigh-county","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-pennsylvania","tag-science","tag-south-whitehall-township","tag-top-stories-tmc","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-wildlife"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116602491743083512","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807963","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=807963"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807963\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/807964"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=807963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=807963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=807963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}