Fort Marcy incident latest in string of sightings in urban parts of state
By Lily Alexander lalexander@sfnewmexican.com
1 Sep 2026Rewind 15 secondsListenForward 15 secondsSwitch to focused listening
A black bear remained perched in a tree late Monday afternoon at Fort Marcy park after city police and state wildlife officials had left the area.
Officers from the Santa Fe Police Department and the New Mexico Department of Wildlife had monitored the bear for more than six hours Monday before leaving by 4:45 p.m. The bear, which didn’t attempt to climb down during that time, ended up too high on a branch for officials to safely tranquilize it. Officers told people in the area to call police again if it climbed down or left the tree and stayed nearby.
If that happened, Santa Fe interim police Chief Ben Valdez said, the Department of Wildlife might consider tranquilizing the bear, or police would encourage it to “move along.”
“With it being in the tree so high, the safest thing was to not use a tranquilizer,” Valdez said. “That would put the bear at risk and then also property, if they were to fall.”
Police received a report Monday morning about what was described as a “big” bear “running around” the park, Valdez said. Since there were people — including children — nearby, city police officers and an animal control officer responded.
The bear then climbed a tree as passersby gathered behind caution tape and took photos. One man walked his dog on a nearby sidewalk.
Human activity at the park may have prompted the bear to scramble higher up the tree, Valdez said.
“We’re hopeful that once the activity there in the area kind of mellows out a little bit, maybe toward evening hours or overnight, that it’ll come down and make its way back to a more rural area,” he added.
The bear sighting was the latest in a string of reports of the animals popping up in urban parts of New Mexico — and it wasn’t the only sighting Monday in Santa Fe. A Rancho Viejo resident posted a photo of a bear spotted around 10 a.m. in the neighborhood on the Rancho Viejo South Community Association’s social media page.
Wildlife experts have attributed the summer spike in bear sightings to extremely dry conditions and poor snowpack, which lead bears to search beyond their habitats for food and water. More bears in residential areas means more human encounters — and, often, more bear fatalities.
Nearly 500 bears have been killed already in the 2026-27 season, which began April 1, according to data from the Department of Wildlife. That number — which includes depredation killings by wildlife officers, hunting deaths and other, accidental deaths — compares with 680 bear deaths in the entire 2025-26 season. Although, the number of annual bear deaths has widely fluctuated in the last 25 years, with a low of 246 in 2004-05 and a high of 778 in 2013-14.
The state Department of Wildlife has reported 237 bear depredation killings this season — when the department kills a bear that has damaged private property, crops or livestock — up from 218 killings last week. It has recorded 37 other bear deaths in that period, such as fatalities from vehicle crashes, and reported hunters have killed another 214 bears.
The department reported relocating 39 bears across the state — the same number as a week ago.
Officials are continuing to urge New Mexicans to secure their trash, take down their bird feeders and avoid leaving food outside.
“The big thing is, if you see the bear there, just give it space,” Valdez said. “Don’t do anything to engage with them; we want them to move along. That’s the best thing to do because whenever you have human interactions with bears, then that’s when Game and Fish [now known as the Department of Wildlife] may have to look at moving the bear or potentially even having to euthanize the bear.”
Lily Alexander is a state accountability reporter for The New Mexican and Searchlight New Mexico, focusing on equity and transparency. Her position is part of the New Mexican Public Service Journalism Fund, and her stories are available to all readers without a paywall.