A black bear resting in a tree beside the Teaneck Armory sounds like the setup to a North Jersey joke, but residents actually watched that scene unfold this year. Elsewhere, another bear wandered onto the grounds of Turtle Back Zoo, briefly making the visitor more famous than the animals inside the exhibits.
New Jersey’s summer bear activity has been especially noticeable in Bergen and Essex counties, where wooded corridors run surprisingly close to schools, sidewalks, and tightly packed neighborhoods. Most of these bears are simply passing through while looking for food or new territory.
Still, a backyard sighting can turn an ordinary morning into a neighborhood-wide group-chat event. State wildlife officials stress that residents should never approach or feed a bear…