![[UGCDC-CJ] [EXTERNAL] bear sighting in Tysons yesterday!](https://media.nbcwashington.com/2019/09/9c10aa70-1e68-49cc-be69-661cdfaae686.jpeg?quality=85&strip=all&resize=320%2C180)
People who are stuck at home because of the coronavirus pandemic are seeing more animals outside their homes. And that means that animal control agencies in the Washington region are fielding more calls about wildlife.
The Washington Post reported Tuesday that the foxes, raccoons and bears have always been there. It's just that humans haven't always noticed them.
Officials in Montgomery County, Maryland, said they've experienced a “considerable uptick in wildlife calls." Between mid-March and mid-April, calls rose to 422 from 305 the same time last year.
Rodney Taylor, chief of the Prince George’s County Animal Services division, added: “We see more calls and one reason is that people are shut in and they’ll see way more animals than they normally do when they’re not home."
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In Virginia, U.S. Surgeon General Jerome M. Adams recently mentioned on Twitter that he saw a bear in his northern Virginia neighborhood.
“Perhaps one good thing to come from our #COVID19 tragedy is a pause for Mother Nature,” his tweet said.
One News4 viewer sent Jim Handly photos showing a family of foxes living under her shed in Virginia.
Katherine Edwards, a wildlife management specialist in Virginia's Fairfax County, added that her department usually sees “an increase in wildlife-related calls during the spring because it’s baby animal season."
