Officials: Bear may have swum across Cape Cod Canal

BOURNE, Mass. (WHDH) -- State Wildlife officials believe the same black bear that has been spotted across Massachusetts made its way to Cape Cod over the weekend.

A video shot along Church Street in West Barnstable Monday night caught the nearly 200-pound bear climbing down a tree.

“We went out for fun just to look around to see if the bear was out because we heard about. And then we didn’t see it so we were just coming home and it was just walking along the side of the road and went up the tree, came down the tree and went into the woods and disappeared,” said Liam Crivellaro.

It was the latest sighting of the bear that has been spotted for about a year. In August, a homeowner in Middleboro captured the black bear helping himself to a bird feeder.

State Wildlife officials a bear roaming around on Cape Cod is rare.

“It’s unprecedented. We haven’t had bears on the Cape since before colonial times,” said Jason Zimmer, State Department of Fisheries and Wildlife. “Most likely it swam the canal. Bears are excellent swimmers. With the wrong time it would be very tough, but if he just happens to have timed it right and it’s close to a slack tide, or the tide was moving westward.”

State Wildlife officials believe it’s the same bear that’s been spotted in Rochester, Plymouth, Middleboro, and Cape Cod.