Mother bear, two cubs hit and killed in Milton

PHOTOGRAPHER: Lee Coleman

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A mother bear and what police believe were her two cubs were killed Sunday night in separate accidents.

Chief Deputy Edward M. Rooney of the Saratoga County Sheriff’s Office said the mother bear was hit and killed at 8 p.m. Sunday on Galway Road, about 500 feet east of Middleline Road.

A man driving west on Galway Road reported to the sheriff’s department that he hit something but wasn’t sure what it was. The man was not injured.

Later that night, at 11:23 p.m. on Northline Road in the town of Milton, a driver hit two black bear cubs that had come out of the woods and into traffic, Rooney said. The driver was not injured.

Rooney said the black bears are difficult to see at night. He said he considered it quite unusual to have three bears hit and killed in highway accidents on a single night in Saratoga County.

David Winchell, a spokesman for the state Department of Environmental Conservation, said the black bear population in New York state is on the increase. In the past, the bear population was generally restricted to the Catskill and Adirondack mountains, he said, but in recent years, bears have started to range into places like northern Saratoga and Washington counties.