4 bears hang out in a tree in Chesapeake — on Bruin Drive, no less

Chesapeake — While a mother bear and her three cubs enjoyed a long, relaxing nap high up in a tree in a Chesapeake neighborhood Monday, it was a different situation for the folks on the ground below.

Multiple police officers stayed busy throughout the day, blocking nearby streets and trying to keep onlookers away. Members of the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources also stayed close, ready to take action if needed.

TV reporters and onlookers got as close as they could, with their cameras trained up at the resting bears. Later in the day, folks with long lens cameras set up shop, boasting to each other about the photos they got. Residents of the houses nearest to the site, meanwhile, remained on edge, wondering how long they’d have to wait for the bears to move on so that their usual activities could resume.

Dispatchers were first notified around 2 a.m. about a possible bear sighting in the 3200 block of Bruin, said police spokesman Leo Kosinski. The street is in Silverwood, a neighborhood in Western Branch that’s filled with spacious homes on large lots, with plenty of towering trees spread about.

It wasn’t until later that morning that officers spotted the four bears napping in a tree, Kosinski said. That’s when police and animal control officers closed off the area.

By 7 p.m., nearby roads remained blocked, but the crowd was gone and only one officer from the wildlife resources department remained.

“It’s not uncommon at all for bears to climb trees,” said Gray Anderson, chief of wildlife for the department. “It’s also against popular belief for bears to enter a hibernation phase in coastal areas like this one.”

Anderson said the four black bears will climb down and walk away when they’re ready, and that their trip down Bruin Drive is likely an isolated incident.

“Our expectation is, if we leave them alone they’ll climb down and go back to their natural habitat,” he said.

Lyndon German, frederick.german@virginiamedia.com

Staff writer Sean Kennedy contributed to this report.