A late night visit from a small mammal strolling the streets of North Little Rock is nothing unusual in a suburban neighborhood.
But late Monday, a North Little Rock couple discovered something much bigger than a cat or raccoon walking down their driveway -- a bear. What a large apex predator was doing in the late and early hours of the day this week is unclear.
A couple who live in the Lakeview neighborhood of North Little Rock spotted the bear Monday, just before midnight. They said the bear sent off a motion detector and saw it walking down their driveway on their Ring security camera.
"We've had cats go through the portico. They come through and it will set the Ring off, but this was a big cat," said a North Little Rock woman who caught the creature on video.
Bear sightings pop up periodically in central Arkansas' urban neighborhoods. In May 2020, people said they saw bears in Little Rock, Cabot and White Hall, according to news media reports.
The late Monday night bear sighting wasn't the only one in North Little Rock this week.
[Video not showing up above? Click here to watch » arkansasonline.com/427bear/]
James Bryant of KATV-Channel 7 tweeted footage Tuesday night of another bear sighting, from a different North Little Rock resident. And, University of Central Arkansas fans, don't be confused: This bear was likely not a member of the men's baseball team that was also in town this week to face the Arkansas Razorbacks at Dickey-Stephens Park.
Why the bear was in North Little Rock is a mystery. Is the bear anything like other visitors to North Little Rock? Was the bear in town to see the city's historic Old Mill or perhaps to take a stroll along one of the nearby lakes? It's hard to say. North Little Rock police could not be reached for comment.
According to Arkansas Game and Fish spokesman Keith Stephens, the bear was "just looking for an easy meal in a trash can or a pet's food dish."
"Someone may have reported it," Stephens said in a statement. "We get many of these calls at this time of year. It's usually a yearling that the mother has decided it's time for the bear to move out of the den and fend for themselves. We ask that people just let them be and don't harass them."
For the University of Central Arkansas Bears men's baseball team, Tuesday was a tough night in North Little Rock, losing to the Hogs 2-1 in extra innings. As for the fate of the North Little Rock bear, if caught it's likely destined for government housing, Stephens said.
"Whenever we trap a bear in town, we take them to one of the state's public lands areas and release them," he said.