CLEVELAND, Ohio -- It's the black bear season, with bruins rambling with abandon around northeast Ohio.

Paul Love of Lake Milton spotted a black bear on Saturday afternoon in his Mahoning County neighborhood. The young bear put up with people armed with cameras, but took off after being hissed at by Tommy, a neighborhood cat.

"The bear seemed pretty calm when I spotted him about 2 p.m. He was eating pears from a tree near my house," said Love, a human resource manager. "When the bear walked up a neighbor's driveway, Tommy the cat hissed at him. The bear backed up, turned around and left."

Love sees bears all the time while running his 4-wheeler in Pennsylvania, but seldom this close.

"I hunt a lot, deer and turkey mostly, and read a lot of wildlife books," he said. "This bear was a bit of a surprise because he wasn't fazed much by people -- even when they were pretty close to him."

There have been so many bear sightings this week that wildlife officials can't keep up. Wildlife research technician Laurie Graber is coordinating a large stack of reports and also participating in Canada goose roundups this week.

The Mahoning Valley has been its usual hot spot, with bear sightings in Canfield and Jackson Township. Much of that has to do with its closeness to the Pennsylvania woods, where bear populations are high and mother bears are giving their young male offspring the boot before the breeding season begins again.

"We've had about 40 reports in the past week, processing 19 of them," said wildlife information officer Jamey Graham. "While few bear sightings have been confirmed, many are hard to deny because of the consistent reports and information we receive. Bears have been reported in 10 counties around northeast Ohio so far this year."

Ohio wildlife experts believe there are about 60 black bears living year-round in Ohio. While bear sightings have been on the upswing over the last decade, there was slight decrease in 2011. With 152 black bears reported last year, 60 were confirmed. In 2010, there were 64 confirmed sightings.

Most bears are spotted in northeast and southeast Ohio. Northeast Ohio bear sightings hit 97 last year in 13 counties, with Geauga and Ashtabula counties leading the way with 22 and 20 sightings.

Bear hunting is not in Ohio's future, say Ohio wildlife officials. In Pennsylvania, where there are large numbers, a fall hunting season is needed to keep bears from being a major nuisance. (Note: A previous version of this story incorrectly reported that there is a spring bear-hunting season in Pennsylvania.)

Last fall, Pennsylvania hunters killed 4,350 bears with gun and bow, the largest modern-day bear harvest.

The bears prowling Ohio looking for new territory or a mate tend to be medium-sized, 18-month-old males weighing about 150 pounds. In Pennsylvania, bears grow much older, and far bigger. In 2011, the biggest bear checked by a hunter weighed 746 pounds, with the next seven in the standings weighing at least 706 pounds. In 2010, a hunter weighed in one of the six bears that have topped 800 pounds over the years, an 879-pound behemoth.

Ohio wildlife officials have warned people to stay away from wild bears roaming into Ohio, and discourage bears from hanging around. Bears are hungry, requiring people to move bird feeders higher, keep trash inside until pick up day and clean barbecue grills.

If the rest of the bears are like the one roaming Lake Milton on Saturday, a "watch cat" may not be a bad idea.