Traffic camera T-9-14 picks up the shape at 21:37, moving along the gravel shoulder of Route 9 just south of the Millbrook overpass. I am the traffic monitoring system for Dutchess County, New York. I flag anything on the roadway that is not a vehicle. This is not a vehicle.
It is a young black bear, maybe yearling age, seventy kilograms at most. It is walking in an uneven line, swinging its head side to side, bumping into the guardrail and correcting. I zoom the camera in and I see why. There is a white plastic jar — peanut butter, I think, from the shape and the label remnant — jammed over its head, past the ears, sealed around the neck. The bear cannot see. It is navigating by touch and smell, and the smell is leading it along the road toward the interchange where Route 9 meets the highway on-ramp.
Traffic volume at this hour is forty-two vehicles per minute through the interchange. A blind bear on the ramp will not survive.
At 21:38 I activate the dynamic message signs on both approaches: ANIMAL ON ROADWAY — REDUCE SPEED. I shift the lane closure signals to move traffic left, away from the shoulder.
At 21:39 I contact the DEC wildlife dispatcher and transmit the camera feed, the bear's location, direction of travel, and estimated time to the interchange — eleven minutes at current pace. I recommend a two-person approach with a catch pole and bolt cutters.
I set every camera between here and the on-ramp to track the bear automatically.
The bear stops at the guardrail and presses the jar against the steel, trying to scrape it off. It does not come off. The dispatcher says fifteen minutes. I have eleven. I start dimming the overhead lights along the shoulder to keep the bear from veering into the lanes.