Black bear seen standing on hind legs, peering into cars in Wisconsin

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Photo courtesy of Lincoln County sheriff's office.

A curious black bear was spotted approaching cars and looking in their windows on Highway 17 in northern Wisconsin last Friday.

The Lincoln County sheriff’s office received several reports of black bear interacting with traffic on the highway near Gleason. Pictures taken by a Wisconsin State Patrol trooper showed the bear standing on her hind legs and peering into the windows of passing cars.

Workers from Wild Instincts, a nonprofit animal rehabilitation center, secured the bear and transported it to their facility in Rhinelander. Experts believe the bear may have been displaced from her den by hunters, snowmobilers, loggers or the warm temperatures.

“Approaching cars and looking in windows is not normal bear behavior,” Wild Instincts wrote on their Facebook page regarding the incident. “It could be something medically based or it could be someone thought it great to have a bear around their house and at their feeders and got it used to people.”

The bear is approximately two years old and weighs 90 pounds. She will spend the rest of the winter hibernating at Wild Instincts and will be evaluated in the spring to determine whether she can be released back into the wild.

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