The camera captures a bear hanging out on the deck at Tyngsborough

local news

Yogi Bear left Jellystone for a night on the town in Middlesex County.

An outdoor camera caught a bear lounging on a homeowner’s patio in Tyngsborough on Sunday night.

The bear was likely attracted to a bin of old lettuce on the deck, said Elyse Wolf, from Tyngsborough, the homeowner whose Blink camera caught the bear in action.

“We’ve caught bears before. Because of the bears, we even stopped spreading bird seed in the summer,” said Wolf.

The bear may not have gotten the snack he was hoping for, but he made some friends along the way.

Wolf’s three cats, Dobbie, Loki and Lucy, peered out the window while the bear sauntered across the deck.

“It wouldn’t surprise me if at least one or two of these [the cats] looked at the bear and said, ‘Hey, do you want to play with us?’”

Bear sightings are common in Tyngsborough.

Wolf is an admin for Tyngsborough Bear Sightings Facebook Group. She posted her video to the group on Monday.

Just a day before Wolf released her video, a bear was seen walking through a person’s backyard on Patriot Road.

“I wonder where Boo Boo is,” one commenter wrote, referencing it Yogi Bear’s sidekick.

Black bears live and breed in northern Middlesex County and Worcester County and west of the Berkshires. according to MassGov. However, bears have recently been spreading to southeastern Massachusetts.

When a bear decides to visit a backyard near you, Mass.gov advises that you leave the animal alone, and eventually it should go away on its own.

Young male bears often go it alone to avoid competing with other male bears in their area, MassWildlife biologist Dave Wattles told Boston.com. In search of food, the young bears often end up near people who have left food outside, who have fruit trees or bushes, or who have beehives.

To keep bears away, avoid putting up bird feeders, store trash and compost in closed containers, preferably in a garage, and don’t leave pet food out in the open, they say Mass.gov.