New Contrarian Sentiment Indicator?

My father lives in suburban Connecticut where the deer are plentiful, but there is little else in the way of large mammals. Or so I thought. Apparently a neighbor saw a bear walking up my father’s driveway yesterday.

Out of curiosity, I went to Google to check for bear sightings in the area and was surprised to find a story about another bear sighting several days ago in a neighboring town, Simsbury, with the accompanying photo snapped from inside an insurance agency by an alert Kris Anderson. Now I really began to wonder: just how many bears no longer have enough room to wander around in lower Manhattan and have moved to Connecticut to take up residence? While the exact number is a mystery, I was surprised to see that according to the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection, there have been 1349 black bear sightings in the state over the course of the past year. Granted, it has been 30 years since I have lived in the state, but that number is about 1330 more than I would have guessed. Incidentally, Simsbury appears to be the bear capital of Connecticut, with 229 sightings – or about two every three days.

Investors take note: Stamford and Greenwich, where hedge funds are a dime a dozen, have not reported any bear sightings in the past year.