COBB COUNTY, Ga. — Parents and pet owners said a black bear has moved into their neighborhood, and they want help.
The encounters are happening in the Huntington Woods subdivision of Marietta.
Tiffany Brown told Channel 2’s Courtney Francisco that concerns grow every day the bear inches closer to her and her neighbors.
“Concern for children, small pets, we have elderly doing walks in the neighborhood,” said Brown.
[DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks]
Brown’s neighbor, Veronica Gana, also pointed out they are concerned the bear will become habituated in the neighborhood, get ran over in the busy area or hurt someone.
“I’m really scared for the bear as well because he’s displaced,” said Gana.
They asked if the bear was moving toward people because developers have cleared hundreds of acres of wooded area for a new subdivision near I-575.
Georgia Department of Natural Resources Urban Wildlife Program Manager Ben McCullar said that’s possible, but he said it is more likely happening due to a natural process that occurs each Spring.
That’s when young male bears begin searching for their own territory.
“Mother bear kicks out this young adolescent male to move South and establish its own territory,” said McCullar. “Many of these young bears follow their nose to metro Atlanta neighborhoods and stay longer than we would like them to.”
He said DNR only traps and moves bears in emergencies or extreme nuisance cases because most of the time, the bears die shortly after.
He said cars often hit the bears in the unfamiliar area, or more dominant bears eat all the food resources there.
TRENDING STORIES:
- Suspect dead, officer injured in shooting on I-575 in Woodstock
- Woman accused of shoplifting from same metro Atlanta Walmart 16 times
- Metro Atlanta man followed teen girls for miles, beaten when confronted, deputies say
He said DNR recommends neighbors get rid of all things that might attract the bear first. That can be things like deer feed, bird seed, water in bird baths and trash.
He said once all of that is gone, give it two weeks. That can push the bear back into the woods.
If not, DNR does offer a list of professional trappers that you can pay to remove nuisance bears.
DNR said it has not tracked any confirmed cases of a black bear like the one in this neighborhood attacking people or killing pets in recent history.
Loud noises usually scare them away first, according to DNR.
“Doing anything you can to instill a little bit of fear in the bear is usually all that it takes to encourage it to move away,” said McCullar.
So far, neighbors in this case said the suggestions are not working.
[SIGN UP: WSB-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter]
©2026 Cox Media Group
