BOONE, N.C. — Trail camera video shot at an apartment complex in Boone shows a bear missing a foot. You can see the bear in the video limping around in pain as it searches for something to eat.
This video is not the first sighting of the bear.
Niki Powell first encountered the bear at her home. Powell says she looked out her front door and found the bear climbing up her eaves.
She says that's when she contacted Help Asheville Bears because she could see the injury and that the bear was in need of help.
Help Asheville Bears Founder, Jody Williams came up the mountain and put cameras at the apartment complex to get a better idea of if the bear was suffering.
"Overtime the arthritis will set in, the extra weight on the one leg... they will end up walking on their hind legs or on their elbows and they will need medications, steroids at that point so they will have a quality of life," Williams says.
Williams believes the bear's foot was caught in a trap. His group is offering a reward for anyone found poaching the bears.