The Metropolitan Police in Washington and animal control personnel are struggling this Friday to locate a black bear that has been seen perched in a tree, about 6 kilometers northeast of the White House.
Television stations have shown images of the animal, an Ursus americanus, resting on a tree branch near Franklin Street in the US capital.
The FOX5 television station has shown a video in which the bear is seen resting on a thick branch in the middle of the smoke of the forest fires in Canada, which still affect the Northeast of the United States.
A Twitter user posted a video of the animal running across the street near the intersection of 14th and Monroe on her account.
The police have interrupted the movement of vehicles and pedestrians waiting for the capture of the animal, and the Elsie Whitlow public school has warned families of the presence of the bear a few meters from that institution.
A black bear was sighted in the northern District of Columbia town of Hyattsville, Maryland on Thursday, and the Maryland Department of Natural Resources had reported one black bear in Howard County on Tuesday.
The so-called American black bear is the most common ursid in North America, smaller than polar bears and brown bears and can reach a weight of up to 280 kilograms in males and 180 kilograms in females.
The black bear's habitat extends from Canada and Alaska to the plateaus in central Mexico. According to the BearWise platform, in June bears of all ages are actively searching for new territories, food and mating, and rarely become aggressive.
