There could be four or five black bears roaming around northern Gwinnett County, Don McGowan, a spokesman with the state wildlife agency, told Channel 2 Action News.
A bear was seen in a park in Dacula multiple times over recent weeks, following sightings in Suwanee and Sugar Hill. One sighting on the Suwanee Greenway prompted Suwanee Elementary School to curtail outdoor activities for the day.
Chris Saltz, who lives nearby, decided to follow the Dacula bear when he saw it at Little Mulberry Park over the weekend and recorded its movements with his phone’s camera.
“When it turned around and noticed I was following it, it definitely growled at me,” Saltz told the television station.
State wildlife officials do not currently have any plans to trap or relocate any bears that have been seen in Gwinnett, Melissa Cummings, a spokeswoman with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
If a bear that has been tagged and relocated before repeatedly exhibits “nuisance or habituation behavior,” it would have to be trapped and euthanized, Cummings said.
