John Rumball has lived in Greater Sudbury for over 17 years and in that time he has encountered a lot of different animals.

"I've had no experience with bears. We know they've been around. We've seen evidence of it, but I've never really seen one in the area until just the past three weeks," he explained.

Rumball has posted two videos of a bear he calls 'Cubby'.

He said he's reported the incidents to the Ministry Of Natural Resources and Forestry, but it wasn't an easy process.

"I said I was calling the bear hotline and they transferred me again and the next thing I know i was transferred to the MNRF, which was good, but I was on hold for a while and I just gave up," he said.

So what do you do if you spot a bear in Greater Sudbury?

The city said you should call the Ministry Of Natural Resources and Forestry.

"If it is not an emergency you can go to the 'Report a Bear' or the 'Bear Wise, Report a Bear' website and add your sighting to that page," said Al Sizer, Sudbury city councilor.

"If there's danger, if you feel that you are in trouble or part of your family is in trouble, then you would call 911."

From April to September last year, there were almost 800 calls to the bear wise line in the city.

For the same time period this year, there have been about 450 sightings, but that could go up this month

"Now that the berries are done and their source of food will change to acorns and different food sources in the forest. If there's a shortage, they will come looking."

The ministry reminds everyone to remain ‘Bear Wise’ well into the fall and officials said people shouldn’t put garbage out until the morning of pick-up.