A small black bear that has made its way from St. Mary's County and through Calvert and Anne Arundel counties in the past few weeks was spotted Wednesday in the Arbutus area of Baltimore County, according to the Department of Natural Resources.

The agency received calls from dozens of residents who reported seeing the bear, officials said.

Paul Peditto, director of the department's Wildlife and Heritage Service, said he and four other DNR employees were in Arbutus Wednesday to investigate the reports and look for the bear. If they had found the bear, they might have attempted to capture and relocate it, he said.

Peditto said they confirmed a sighting near Southwestern Boulevard and Selma Avenue.

"We were essentially following up on the reports from last night and this morning that the bear was creating quite a stir in a place where there was a lot more people and traffic than we would prefer," he said Wednesday.

The bear "isn't an animal that's creating a threat just by its mere presence," but DNR officials would use lethal force if it became an imminent threat to people, Peditto said. Dozens of bears each year travel through areas of the state that they don't commonly inhabit, but "not normally this close to Baltimore City," he said.

The bear is "probably a little over a year old, and is looking for his home territory," said Olivia Campbell, a department spokeswoman. "What happens with bears is that their mothers kick them out of their den, and they need to go find their own home range."

Officials plan to keep track of the bear to make sure it keeps moving toward more appropriate areas, such as Allegany and Garrett counties in Western Maryland where most of the state's black bear population is found, Campbell said.

Bears can travel up to 30 miles a day, and this one will most likely keep wandering until it reaches Pennsylvania or Western Maryland, she said.

Campbell said the bear has been traveling along river corridors and could have come across the Potomac River from Virginia. Peditto said that if the bear finds Herbert Run Stream in Arbutus, it might be able to get to the Patapsco River and then leave the area.

Last week, the bear was spotted in Shady Side in Anne Arundel County "very early in the morning enjoying an apple from an apple tree in someone's front yard," Campbell said.

Bears are "opportunistic feeders," she said, and residents should bring bird and pet feed inside and secure their trash "so he won't have any incentive to stay around and he'll move on to more appropriate habitat."