The Alexander City Outlook

Black bear spotted in Dadeville

In the past few months there have been multiple sightings of a black bear that has caused its witnesses to do double-takes and brought skeptical responses from people they shared their sightings with.

It is the first known bear sighting in the area in the last eight years, according to local game warden Sgt. Michael East.

So far, all the sightings are in the Dadeville area – from the geographical center of town, which is quite wooded, to the west of the city limits in the vicinity of Point Cloxson Circle off of Youngs Ferry Road. The three known sightings have not included multiple bears.

It all started about four months ago during a local couple’s late afternoon boat ride.

“It would have been sometime in mid-June – that’s when we saw it,” said Sherry Watkins. “We thought it was a dog until my husband (Jim) said, ‘He has round ears.’”

Sherry said the couple was riding along in Sandy Creek “in the cut right before you get to the big water” near the rope swing. They maneuvered closer and, although it was twilight, got a good look at the beast.

“We watched it swim across and climb up on the bank and run into the woods,” she added. “Everybody thought we were crazy, even the game warden.”

For a few months the bear kept a low profile or witnesses didn’t bother coming forward, because the next recorded sightings didn’t happen until three and a half weeks ago off of Point Cloxson Circle. First a son saw it, then the mother, and neither one knew of the other’s story until after the father had been told.

Jason Clark, a local artist and landscaper who lives on the lake, was on his way out to the water to fish from the dock. Upon clearing the trees and making his way onto the wooden walkway, Jason’s attention was on the clear star-filled sky and the illuminating full moon. It wasn’t until Jason heard the sound of “turtle shells or claws – heavy, heavy claws – scraping on the wood” and a couple of splashes that his startled gaze moved toward the ground.

“I almost stepped on a bear on my pier,” Jason said. “It all happened so fast. It was early and the sun wasn’t out; I only saw it by the light of the moon. He must have seen me first. He had to go somewhere or encounter me – he chose to jump.”

The bear had jumped four feet down into less than a foot of water and took off on the exposed lake bed rumbling next to the seawall heading toward land.

“He was bigger than a dog,” Jason said. “He was the height of a big dog, but his body was wider. The fatness of him – dogs don’t get that big around.

A bear? (To see) it was really cool to me. If it had been a momma bear and her cubs, I’m sure all I would have seen was claws and teeth.”

Jason had no idea at the time that his account of what he saw on Sept. 20, which his father (Jim) chalked up to lunacy, would be confirmed the next day by a very credible and unimpeachable witness – his mother and Jim’s wife, Ann.

“It was a Tuesday, because I had worked at the (Russell Medical Center) hospital,” Ann said. “It was between 11:30 (a.m.) and 12 (p.m.) – the middle of the day.

“I was coming down West Lafayette (Street) and as I crossed over the bridge going into Dadeville, the bear crossed the street in front of me, going from right to left.”

That part of Dadeville is a marshy creek area with woods on either side of the road.

“My reaction was, ‘This is not a dog,’” Ann said. “I say if he had stood up on his hind legs, he would be six feet tall.

“I told my husband I saw a bear and he said, ‘You’ve got to be kidding! Have you heard about Jason?”

That’s when Jim related their son’s sighting from the previous night and a tall tale became sane and real.

Since the Clarks’ encounter, Jason said that someone has come out and found territory-marking scratches on some trees and hair samples that confirm the presence of a bear.

According East, bears use the water to migrate, which would explain their ability to travel such long distances and avoid man-made barriers like roads and fences. The range of bears in Alabama goes as far north as Talladega National Forest and as far south as the swampy wildlife refuges near Mobile.