NORTH LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Springtime in Arkansas brings many things – blooming plants, warmer weather, and even animals too.
It's something that some in North Little Rock are already seeing. Unfortunately, these specific animals are quite large--they're bears--and officials urge you to keep your distance if you come across one.
"Stay away from it and admire it. There's a lot of wildlife in it. That's the great thing about Arkansas," Keith Stephens, Chief of Communication for the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, said.
For Stephens, this is a moment of déjà vu as it seems to be a yearly occurrence.
"It's not uncommon at all, it happens every single year in Arkansas," he said.
He's talking about young bears leaving their dens looking for food.
"Right about now is when the kids [bears] are getting pushed out of the house [den] by the mother," Stephens said. "So we started getting a lot of calls about seeing bears in neighborhoods and things like that."
Those bears are starting to emerge now, even right here in some central Arkansas neighborhoods.
In the Park Hill neighborhood in North Little Rock, the Gardner family saw a bear walk right past the side of their house – capturing it all on their Ring doorbell camera.
"We're encroaching on their space. They were here first," Stephens said. "As the city grows and grows outward then we're gonna have these problems from time to time."
Stephens said he's unsure why the bear was in the neighborhood, especially with it being so close to a busy road like JFK Blvd.
With that in mind, he said there are things that some people do that can unintentionally attract them.
"It's pretty typical, somebody will see a bear rummaging through their trash cans in their backyard looking for food," he said.
That's when the issues can start, but Stephens emphasized that bears are much more scared of us than we are of them.
He also explains that if they associate homes with free food – like open trash cans and pet food – then they'll stick around.
"You don't have to worry about them, we've never had an attack here in Arkansas or anything like that," Stephens said.
If you were to run into a bear, there's some things to keep in mind. Stephens said to back up, make some noise, and throw something like a rock if you need to.
Stephens said it's not an attempt to hurt the animals, but to make sure they know they're not welcome.
"We don't want them to like getting trapped and be around. We want them to realize that being around humans is a bad thing," Stephens said. "So we're kind of rough with them and make sure that they don't want to come back."