(UPI) Wildlife officials in North Carolina are warning residents to be aware of an unusual potential household hazard: bears waking up under the house.

Justin McVey, a district wildlife biologist with the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, said officials have noticed an uptick in recent years of bears making their winter homes under houses and decks.

"When people think of dens, they always think of caves," McVey told WGHP-TV. That's not really the case.

He said bear dens are also sometimes found in crawlspaces and backyard brush piles.

"When I started out here 12 years ago, I may have gotten one or two calls about it," he said. Now, we probably hear about 10-15 of those cases.

He said wildlife officials might evict the unwanted squatters, depending on the time of year. He said officials are hesitant to relocate mother bears with very young cubs.

"The fun part of the job is to convince a homeowner that it's OK to have a bear under their house," McVey said.

He said bears usually vacate their winter dens voluntarily around late March and early April.

California's BEAR League shared video in January of a bear being evicted from underneath a North Lake Tahoe home. The bruin had accidentally been barricaded into the crawlspace by a handyman who installed some wires.

Copyright 2024 by United Press International