Bald eagles in Crescent? Foxes in Scott? Beavers on the South Side and bears in South Park?

A rash of wild animal sightings in Pittsburgh suburbs has some people worried and others wondering if there's something earthy going on.

But wildlife officials say it's just business as usual.

Urban sprawl has pushed people onto animals' turf since, well, Jamestown. But when animals commonly considered rural and distant move into heavily populated neighborhoods, the reaction -- on both sides -- can range from confusion to fear.

"They panic when they see these things," said Wildlife Conservation Officer Beth Fife of the Pennsylvania Game Commission. "I've had calls where people say, 'You have to remove wildlife from the Pittsburgh area. They don't belong here.' Well, they do belong here, it's their home, too, and when they're not bothering anybody, we say just leave them alone."

Roger Park of East Pittsburgh thought he saw a pile of rags while bicycling on the Three Rivers Heritage trail on the South Side.

"I'd never seen a beaver in the wild," he said. "It had the classic flipper tail and was eating berries that had fallen on the ground."

A Crescent couple initially thought the bald eagles soaring over their yard were turkey vultures, and in Scott, a woman wondered whose cats were in her backyard until she realized they were gray fox cubs that had recently emerged from a nearby den.

"I'm not happy with the wildlife right in my yard," said Linda, who asked that her last name be withheld to protect her privacy. "My husband wanted them taken out from Day 1. We have little ones around, grandchildren."

Foraging deer draw the most complaints, and coyotes have been reported within Pittsburgh city limits. Matt Amoroso of Bethel Park was so concerned about bears he saw late one night in South Park, he wrote a letter to the editor, published in the Post-Gazette, warning of a public safety hazard.

But Game Commission officials say these brushes with nature are neither unnatural nor overly dangerous.

"It's possible there could be bears [in South Park]," said Game Commission bear biologist Mark Ternent. "It could be young males passing through to a new territory or siblings, but even if a black bear sow had a den in a remote spot near there, it isn't necessarily a hazard. If it's a bear it's one that avoids people, it's a bear doing what we want them to do."

Mr. Ternent said it isn't unusual for bears to quietly pass through or move into the suburbs with no one seeing them. Recently a sow and cubs regularly visited Wilkes-Barre/Scranton on feeding runs, and one bear was recently found living under a house in a gated community in the Poconos.

"We know of examples of bears living in other suburban areas, and as long as they're not given food they leave people alone," Mr. Ternent said.

Since 1981, changes in hunting regulations and improved habitat dramatically increased Pennsylvania's bear population, which Mr. Ternent estimates at 15,000 to 18,000.

"The point is this habitat is more suitable for bears than we perceive it to be," he said. "Just because it's near an urban center doesn't mean it's unsuitable for the bear."

Mr. Ternent said there are reports of bears in backyards every day in Pennsylvania.

"Yet how many people have been injured by bears? One or two a year, and there's never been a black bear fatality in Pennsylvania," he said. "You're much more likely to be bitten by a dog."

Local police don't have jurisdiction over wild animals that are not posing an immediate threat to people. For a fee, private pest control companies will trap and remove small animals such as snakes and bats, but they're usually not licensed to interfere with larger species. In most cases, the Game Commission -- the Pennsylvania agency with sole responsibility for wildlife management -- is reluctant to remove healthy wild animals that are behaving normally, even when the landowner complains.

Linda said she "thought for sure" wildlife officials would want to remove the foxes from her Scott backyard. But Wildlife Conservation Officer Gary Fujak said he saw the situation as a teaching opportunity.

"They wanted to know if they were a threat. The husband hated them there and wanted them killed, or at least moved," he said. "I told them that's a perfect example of an animal you want to see in Allegheny County in this day and age. It means they're finding habitat and a food source to their liking. I told them they should be left there, as long as they're acting like normal foxes."

"When we first saw them we were nervous, we were fearful and didn't know too much about it," said Linda. "But we've learned so much. Gary said they won't hurt you unless you go after the little ones.

"We thought foxes came from the cat family but they're in the dog family, and we learned they can climb trees. We didn't know that. We saw a baby [fox] with a mouse in its mouth. It's been pretty interesting."

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