Third Time’s the Charm: Familiar Black Bear Keeps Returning to Saraland Neighborhood

A black bear that keeps paying visits to a Saraland subdivision has become a familiar — if unwelcome — sight for at least one resident. Jennifer Simmons, who lives in the Spanish Trace Subdivision off Celeste Road, photographed the animal in a neighbor’s yard and said it marked the third time she has spotted the bear roaming the neighborhood.

The sighting is the latest in a string of bear encounters across Mobile County in recent months. In July, Saraland residents reported seeing a three-legged black bear in their backyard. Back in June, a black bear was struck and killed by a vehicle on Cottage Road between Hillcrest and Cody Roads in Mobile. And last spring, a Daphne resident spotted one of the animals in the Lake Forest neighborhood across the bay.

Wildlife officials say such sightings are becoming more common as southwest Alabama’s black bear population grows and development pushes deeper into habitat the animals use to travel between bottomland areas and woodland. Bears are generally shy and rarely aggressive toward people, but residents are advised never to approach, feed, or corner one.

Homeowners in bear-active areas can reduce attractants by securing garbage cans, bringing pet food indoors overnight, and taking down bird feeders. Sightings can be reported to the Alabama Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries Division, which tracks bear activity across the region.

Alabama’s black bears

The American black bear is Alabama’s official state mammal. For decades, the state’s only remaining population was a small group of bears in the Mobile River Basin north of Mobile. Black bears are protected in Alabama, and it is illegal to kill, injure, trap or capture one at any time.