When Tony Resop let out his dogs at 7:30 a.m. Friday, the last thing he expected to see was a black bear in his neighbor’s pecan tree.
“My first instinct was, ‘Oh my god, there’s a cow in the tree,’” Resop said. “My jaw just dropped. I said, ‘There is a bear in the tree.’ I just couldn’t believe it.”
A black bear, which was reported to be about 400 pounds, had climbed up the pecan tree on Wayne Knight’s land, on the other side of the fence from Resop’s property.
Jay Paul, chair of the county commission, said in a text on Monday that the bear was named Elvis and hoped there would be more Elvis sightings, “without injury” in Oglethorpe County.
Phillip Nelson, a game warden for the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, told Resop to go about his day as usual and that the bear would climb down when it felt safe, likely after dark.
Resop’s dogs often bark at the cows in neighboring pasture, but Resop noticed that the dogs continued to bark after the cows had moved far away.
It was then that Resop found his pets barking up the wrong tree.
Jeff Sharp, the Oglethorpe County director of zoning, planning and code compliance, and other people stopped to check out the bear, which was in a tree near the three-way stop where Bunker Hill Road dead ends into Crawford Smithonia Road.
Nelson said black bears usually aren’t aggressive, but it’s best to “leave them be.”
“They’re just usually resting or doing their thing,” he said.
Resop had never heard of a bear sighting in his area, but Nelson informed him that bears have been roaming farther south than in previous years.
Nelson said Tuesday there were several reported sightings of bears near downtown Lexington a few years ago, but mostly by trail cameras. This sighting was unusual in that the bear was near a busy road.
“That does make it pretty cool,” Nelson said.
He added that bears sometimes wander down from the mountains in the spring and summer and then head back in the fall.
“It’s beyond me why they pick the hottest time of year to come down here,” he added.
It was reported that Elvis eventually left his perch, but it’s unknown if Elvis has left the county.