Video: Resident gets rare close-up view of bears playing in backyard

Bernardsville? More like BEARnardsville. Black bear sightings are not quite rare in our parts, but they aren’t exactly common, making it an exciting occasion when we get to see these shy and elusive animals.

Courtesy: Jessica Harrison

One of the latest sightings was captured in photos and video by Bernardsville resident Jessica Harrison. The springtime warmup brought two black bear “cubs” out of hibernation and into Harrison’s backyard where they put on quite a show.

“This is the first time we’ve seen the cubs and seen them playing. They were gently wrestling each other rolling around like you see on National Geographic,” said Harrison. “We knew bears could climb trees, but we didn’t realize that they come down the same way they go up (backwards) which was very fascinating.”

While this is only Harrison and her family’s second bear sighting in their 14 years in Bernardsville, their first sighting was famed Bernardsville black bear, “Big George”. Big George made the rounds last year, with lucky spotters posting their sightings to social media.

Harrison believes “Big George” may have been a female given the timely sighting of these four-pawed progeny.

“We have not officially named them, but we’re calling them “George’s kids” for now. We believe these are the cubs of the bear we saw in our yard a year ago,” Harrison added.

The video and photos show the bears climbing and tumbling around with one another on a beautiful spring day. After almost two minutes of fumbling and frolicking both bears eventually trot towards the tree line.

While it's exciting to see these awesome animals in our town from time to time, remember, never feed or approach a bear.

Courtesy: Jessica Harrison