The bear is back; well, yes and no

The latest on the bear, Day 6: Two sightings, 15 miles and 12 hours apart.

So one of the witnesses had to have imagined something.

Either that adolescent black bear that has wandered the Greater Seattle area kept going north and made his way to Lake Forest Park, or he somehow decided to completely turn around from his last sighting in Shoreline, cross the ship canal and head south to Beacon Hill.

The latter sighting was reported at 10:30 a.m. today near South Ferdinand Street and Columbia Drive South, with the bear reportedly under some power lines.

"I'm very skeptical of that," said state Department of Fish and Wildlife Sgt. Kim Chandler about the Beacon Hill report. "That's a big dog somebody saw.

"This is typical. We have a big cougar incident or coyote incident, and everybody starts seeing lions and tigers. Their imagination starts playing tricks on them."

The other sighting was about 10:30 p.m. Wednesday near Northeast 178th Street and 25th Avenue Northeast, maybe 10 blocks north from the previous report of the bear Tuesday.

That seems a more credible sighting, said Chandler.

For a bear to suddenly appear in Beacon Hill, well, said the agent, "He didn't just drop out of the sky, did he?"

The young bear is likely about 2 years old, and likely a male, said Chandler. It is at that age that the mom bear kicks out the young male offspring, who then have to stake out their own territory.

The wildlife agents named the elusive bear the "Urban Phantom."

He was first spotted late Saturday night in Magnolia, then made his way to Ballard, and continued north.

He was chased through alleys, streets and backyards in the middle of the night in Ballard by four wildlife agents, a bear-scenting dog and 14 Seattle police officers.

Chandler said he hopes the bear keeps going north, and then east to the Woodinville area, "where there are going to be a lot of bears."