Roving Seattle Black Bear Has a Name!

The Seattle area’s roving black bear is still eluding Fish & wildlife officials, The Seattle Times reports today. After snaking it’s way through Ballard, Magnolia and north to Shoreline, the 2-year-old (a mere teenager in bear years) has been dubbed “Urban Phantom” by officials. 

Hmmm, really? A wild bear has been rampaging our city for three days and that’s the best nickname they could come up with? Urban Phantom lends itself to making us believe that officials haven’t been able to catch this bear for THREE DAYS because of supernatural forces, but it doesn’t speak to the fact that this little black bear has successfully outsmarted officials for THREE DAYS.

It’s only fitting that this little black bear receive a moniker that is a bit more inspired. Afterall, he has risen to local celebrity status the past few day, captivating our headlines and hearts (this is the Northwest afterall, we secretly love the idea of a bear on the loose).

My favorite suggestions so far comes from a Seattle P-I reader genearated list which included both Leif Bearickson and Bearly There. On the national front, Stephen Colbert suggested the bear be named Cole Bear on his show this week. I’m voting for Leif Berickson for now. Any more ideas?

Follow the bear chase using MyBallard.com’s bear tracking map.

View Bear sightings in Ballard in a larger map