MINOCQUA - There are 13,000 black bears roaming the woods of Wisconsin, most of those are here in the Northern part of the state.

And many of those bears are out of hibernation and looking for food, which could be in your backyard.

Imagine looking out your back window and see a 350 pound black bear, rolling around in the bird seed from your feeder.

Mark Naniot spotted a bear in his back yard, he tells us about his visit, "He was underneath the feeders, standing up, eating bird seed that was down on the ground, scratching, rolling around."

Spring-time is the right-time, for bears to be out in full force looking for food. That's because after a long winter they are definitely, HUNGRY!

Naniot says, "We try not to feed them specifically. They're coming around for the bird and sunflower seed, but we try to make sure the feeders are up out of reach and they can't get to them."

Which is exactly what the DNR recommends you do if a bear is in your backyard.

Ron Eckstein is a Wildlife Biologist at the DNR, he says, "Whatever you can do to keep the smell of food away from bears. Keep your garbage clean. Rinse containers before you put them into the garbage can. A good idea is to take Pine Sol and soak some rags and put them in the garbage cans so that keeps bears at bay."

Feeding bears is actually illegal in the state of Wisconsin. Eckstein says instead, scare the bear away.

Eckstein says, "Making loud noises, throwing things at it. If you have available an old tin can with pebbles in it, that's really noisy. Throw that. Have a bucket with rocks on the back porch. Just really make a lot of noise. Bears are not a threat to people in Wisconsin. The only time they become a threat is if they are habituated. We have to have wild bears. Keep them in the woods and do what you can to keep bears away."

So like Mark and his wife, enjoy the bear for a few minutes and then scare it back to the woods.

If you have a bear problem, the DNR recommends to call the USDA Wildlife Services at 1-800-228-1368.

You don't need to call just because you saw a bear, only when a bear becomes a problem.