Andrew Nierer was doing a grocery run before the football game on Jan. 19 when a strange thing happened.

A bear came from the woods, ran across the parking lot of the Jim Thorpe market and bit him in the arm.

A neighbor saw the action and quickly shot and killed the bear, which later tested positive for rabies.

Nierer underwent rabies treatment and the story made national news.

The surveillance video hit major news stations and was featured on “Inside Edition.”

It made news because it is not a normal occurrence by any means.

The Pennsylvania Game Commission said the attack was abnormal behavior for a bear, especially at this time of year when bears are usually hibernating.

Spokesman Travis Lau said bear sightings are not unheard of during hibernation times. “Bears that are on their own sometimes do get up and move around, even if briefly,” Lau said.

He said rabies in bears is rare, but rabies poses a risk to all mammals.

Before the Jim Thorpe rabies confirmation, no cases of rabies in Pennsylvania black bears had been reported in years.

The Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture’s Bureau of Animal Health and Diagnostic Services recorded 15 cases of rabies — including the bear — across the commonwealth so far this year.

The most recent cases were found in nine raccoons, four cats, one bear and one skunk, according to the bureau’s Rabies Tracking dashboard.

Even before the bear tested positive for rabies, Carbon County Environmental Center naturalist Susan Gallagher wanted the public to keep a few things in mind.

“Animals aren’t machines. Any one of them can be unpredictable and aggressive. But as a general rule, wild black bears tend to avoid these kinds of encounters, and don’t behave like the one in the video.” she said.

Gallagher said animals have a natural fear of humans as a survival tool.

“For whatever reason, this bear lacked that tool, and we see the result. It’s tragic for animals and people both.”

In general, Gallager said disease or injury can cause animals to act in ways they normally would not.

There have been instances, Gallagher said, where animals have come into populated areas looking for food.

“It should serve as a good reminder not to feed anything other than songbirds,” Gallagher warned.

How concerned should people be? One Jim Thorpe resident has since remarked that the bear had to get rabies from another animal, so the disease is out there.

Rabies is transmitted in the saliva from a rabid animal, and the Pennsylvania Department of Health said rabies continues to be a significant public health problem in the commonwealth.

Since the year 2000, the Department of Health said between 350 and 500 animals are annually confirmed in the laboratory to have rabies. Those are the ones that are tested.

About half of the animal rabies cases are raccoons, followed by skunks, cats, bats and foxes.

Be aware of wild animals acting strangely. Signs vary, but mammals infected with rabies can be aggressive, have excessive drooling, tameness or a lack of fear of humans, difficulty standing or walking, paralysis, circling, incoordination, or head tilt.

Mammals infected with rabies can also appear normal or have very subtle or nonspecific clinical signs of infection.

Here’s what we can do. The Department of Health said cats are the most commonly reported domestic animal with rabies, particularly in Pennsylvania, which typically reports more rabid cats than any other state.

The Department of Health recommends taking care of your pet.

Visit your veterinarian with your pet on a regular basis and keep rabies vaccinations up-to-date for all cats, ferrets and dogs.

Keep pets indoors and under direct supervision when they are outside. But don’t think keeping them indoors means they don’t need to be vaccinated. A case has been documented where a rabid bat got into a house and a cat was infected.

Most importantly, if you do see wildlife acting abnormally report it to the Game Commission at 1-833-PGCWILD.

MARTA GOUGER | MGOUGER@TNONLINE.COM