A black bear wandering near the tennis courts at a Hudson Valley school campus sent students scrambling indoors and triggered a brief lockout earlier this week. The animal was spotted around 1 p.m. on Monday near Veteran park and the tennis courts on the Taconic Hills campus in Craryville, prompting school officials to act fast.
Gym classes and any other students who happened to be outside were immediately brought indoors, and the district initiated a short lockout while the bear roamed the grounds, according to wrrv.com. The Craryville campus is home to both Taconic Hills Elementary School and Taconic Hills Junior/Senior High School, as reported by newyorkupstate.com. The district later confirmed that all students and staff were safe throughout the encounter.
Deputy Credited for Keeping Gym Classes Out of Harm's Way
Taconic Hills Central School District thanked Deputy Wendy Guntert, the school resource officer, for helping get gym classes out of harm's way as the bear made its way across campus, the same outlet notes. The district's response was swift, but officials also found a lighter moment amid the scramble, joking on social media that the bear seemed intent on crashing a lesson. The district said on Facebook that the animal appeared interested in joining a science class but, after being denied entry, left something special to remember him by, per Syracuse.com.
That something special turned out to be exactly what it sounds like. A second photo shared by the district showed the bear defecating on the campus grounds before evidently leaving the area, according to dailyvoice.com. The Facebook post reportedly described the visit simply as an unexpected guest on campus that afternoon, per the Facebook account attributed to Taconic Hills Central School District.
Craryville Sits in Columbia County's Bear Country
Craryville is in Columbia County, about 40 miles southeast of Albany, a rural stretch of the Hudson Valley where bear sightings aren't unheard of. A spokesperson for the New York Department of Environmental Conservation said bear observations and complaints were about average for the year, according to dailygazette.com. The same spokesperson noted that the black bear population in the Catskills has grown over the past 40 years.
That same report estimated New York is home to between 6,000 and 7,000 bears, some of which migrate in from neighboring states. The growth in local bear numbers isn't new to the region, either — Columbia County began allowing black bear hunting back in 2011 after an increase in the population, the outlet reported.
What the State Says About Living Near Bears
The state's environmental conservation agency has long described black bears as an important and natural part of New York's ecosystem, while noting that increased bear activity raises the potential for human-bear conflicts when the animals find food near people, according to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. The agency has also pointed out that areas with more agriculture or higher human densities tend to see a greater likelihood of such conflicts, as detailed on the department's black bear page.
For now, the Taconic Hills bear seems to have made its point and moved on, leaving behind a story that's already made the rounds well beyond Craryville. Students and staff returned to their normal routines once the lockout lifted, with the district's good-natured recap of the encounter doing just as much to spread the news as the brief scare itself.
