For the third time in less than a month, a black bear has died after being struck by a car in Cobb County.

The latest incident happened about 7:15 a.m. Monday, when a bear was hit on Shallowford Road near Trickum Road, in front of Lassiter High School, Cobb police dispatchers said.

The young bear, which weighed about 100 to 125 pounds, was severely injured, and was later euthanized by Cobb authorities, said Melissa Cummings, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Natural Resources.

Cummings said the bear was not the same one spotted last week about four miles away, rambling around businesses and neighborhoods along Johnson Ferry and Roswell roads. That bear was wearing a radio tracking collar, while the bear hit on Monday was not, she said.

On May 30, a cub was hit and killed in the I-75/I-285 interchange in Cobb, and on June 3, another bear was struck by a vehicle and killed on Barrett Parkway at I-75, according to police dispatchers.

It's not unusual for black bears to make their way from the forested foothills north of Atlanta into the suburbs, particularly in the spring and summer.

"The young males are roaming," Cummings said.

"They've been booted out of the nest and are looking for their own territory, and sometimes they just wander a little too far into suburbia," she said. "Either they're looking for territory, or they're finding easy meals, or they're getting away from a larger male bear that has established territory."

Cummings recommended that residents follow a couple of steps to avoid making their neighborhoods attractive to bears.

"The best thing we can do is keep any kind of food source unavailable," she said. "Keep garbage covered and unavailable to them, don't have pet food stored outside or available for your pet outside, and make sure any grills are put up or cleaned. Even bird feeders can sometimes be an attractant."