Summer visitors are arriving to Westport in droves, but the black bear spotted Tuesday on Riverview Drive, just south of Camp Noquochoke, isn’t your typical tourist.
Animal control …
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Summer visitors are arriving to Westport in droves, but the black bear spotted Tuesday on Riverview Drive, just south of Camp Noquochoke, isn’t your typical tourist.
Animal control officers said the bear was spotted Tuesday morning and is likely passing through — “Bears right now are trying to find food to get them ready for winter,” the ACO said Tuesday, adding that there’s no need to be alarmed if you spot it, as long as you take precautions.
Those include not feeding them or allowing them access to any food source. Residents with pets should keep an eye on them, and should also secure all their trash bins and recyclables. Residents with poultry should also secure their pens and coops.
This isn’t the first black bear sighting in Westport over the past year or so. Apart from several sightings in the Route 6 area last spring and summer, another was spotted at the transfer station last August. A few days later, another "sighting" came at Bootleg BBQ on Main Road — but that was deemed a hoax.
Caught up in the black bear fervor following the transfer station sighting, restaurant owner Fred Melnyk put up a Facebook post showing a huge bear making for the front door, with startled customers huddled next to their SUV. But he later admitted it was all a joke — the bear was a photoshop creation.
After the restaurant was flooded with Facebook posts and calls, Melnyk asked his photoshop friend to modify the photo. The result was quite possibly the first-ever sighting of Sasquatch in Westport.