Tomorrow (FRI)! Black Bear coffee chat

 Do you live near black bears in Maine?  Probably.  Wouldn't you like to know more about them?  I know I do!

Join MDIFW's Black Bear + Canada Lynx Biologist, Jen Vashon, for coffee tomorrow morning (Friday)! Jen will be discussing Maine's robust bear population and how to avoid conflicts with bears.

 Click here to watch, or set a reminder to participate in this live video chat on YouTube!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBx7Pj_D79w

WHAT: Coffee chat with Maine Dept of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife Biologist Jen Vashon about Black Bears and how to avoid conflict with our big neighbors

WHERE:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBx7Pj_D79w

WHEN: 9:30am on Friday, Mar 26, 2021

COST:  Free!

Bear mystery meat?

The Press Herald reported this morning about an unusual occurrence in Portland, in which a bear was spotted "acting strangely" (WMTW) in the East Deering area, and was consequently shot by game wardens. WMTW also reported on the incident: http://www.wmtw.com/r/29276769/detail.html. Both sources declined to show photos of the dead bear, improving my morning immensely.

Black bear killed in Portland
The bear is initially spotted in a tree on Oregon Street early this morning.
From staff reports

PORTLAND — Officers of the Maine Warden Service shot and killed a black bear today around 7 a.m. in the woods off Veranda Street in the East Deering neighborhood.

Portland police reported the treed bear to the Wardens Service around 4:30 a.m. Wardens initially tried to tranquilize the bear, but were unable to, according to Portland police Lt. Jim Sweatt.

"It was getting to be 7 o'clock and you don't want school buses and firearms on the scene," Sweatt said.

The bear initially was spotted in a tree on Oregon Street, a residential area, before climbing down and running off, Sweatt said.

The wardens service said the bear weighed around 120 pounds. The hide is being sent to the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife so researchers can determine the bear's sex and age and other factors.

The meat will be distributed to soup kitchens.

Source: http://www.pressherald.com/news/Black-bear-killed-in-Portland.html

Not so sure about the decision to send the meat to the soup kitchens, unless the bear wasn't really "acting strangely," and was just a normal-acting bear that it was safer and more convenient to shoot.