Overview
- Home surveillance footage that showed a black bear walking across a Burnsville driveway and onto a front porch was captured Thursday night and shared by resident Brandon Buckvold.
- The Burnsville sighting follows recent reports of bears in Elk River and near the Wells Fargo campus in Shoreview, signaling more frequent appearances in Twin Cities suburbs.
- The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources says black bears are rarely aggressive but recommends residents never approach or feed bears and to keep children and pets close.
- Officials advise practical steps to reduce encounters, such as securing garbage, removing bird feeders, storing grills and not leaving pet food outside, and to report sightings via the DNR form or map.
- DNR data show the species’ primary range is traditionally north of the metro, but the agency says populations have been expanding south and west, a shift made worse by easy food sources in neighborhoods.