Driver Strikes Bear on Interstate 70 in Belmont County
A driver in Belmont County struck an animal Wednesday night. There’s nothing out of the ordinary about that.
What made the accident unusual was the type of animal he hit.
The driver struck a black bear on Interstate 70 west of St. Clairsville, close to milepost 213 near the exit to Belmont College and Ohio University Eastern. The animal was killed by the impact, which also totaled the vehicle, according to the Ohio State Highway Patrol. The patrol’s report states that the driver and passenger of the vehicle were uninjured by the crash.
Matt Greenwood, working at the Ohio Department of Transportation garage in Morristown, said the garage received a call early Thursday morning from the patrol, asking ODOT to send out a vehicle to pick up the bear carcass. ODOT kept the dead animal at its facility for several hours until officials from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources came to collect the remains.
“They just asked us to go out and pick it up and bring it in, so that’s what we did,” Greenwood said.
Lindsay Rist, wildlife communications specialist for the ODNR, said the black bear in question was a young male, probably around 2 years old. Rist said the bear weighed close to 200 pounds. An adult male black bear can weigh up to 300 pounds, depending on its diet and habitat. Rist said that while black bears are most active in July and August, it isn’t uncommon for them to be active at this time of year. Black bears spend most of the winter dormant in their dens until the spring, and they grow opportunistic in searching for food in the fall and early winter months.
Rist said that while bear strikes aren’t exactly common, “we’ve had a few calls out.” She added that since black bears are relatively rare in Ohio, the calls tend to stick out.
Black bears were once quite populous in Ohio and the surrounding areas, but hunting and habitat destruction severely reduced their numbers in the Buckeye State, where black bears are now considered an endangered species. Black bears are one of three bear species native to North America; the others are brown bears and polar bears, which are not found in Ohio. Black bears are opportunistic omnivores — they will eat plants, fruit, small animals, carcasses, trash and anything else they can get their paws on. The ODNR recommends bringing in pet food and securing trash bins if a bear is reported in the area, as a bear that gets used to human food may become a nuisance animal and may have to be relocated or destroyed by wildlife officials.
“We just ask that people to leave them alone and report them if they have a bear sighting,” Rist said.
She said the dead bear struck late Wednesday is being transported to the wildlife area near Salt Fork State Park. While officials aren’t planning to do a necropsy, they have extracted a tooth from the bear to properly determine the age of the animal. They also took samples of the animal’s DNA, hoping to establish a database to track the bears in Ohio.
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