Denis Leary is heeding wildlife warnings around his Connecticut home after a surprise run-in with a wild black bear left him "screaming like an eight-year-old girl".

The Rescue Me star lives in rustic Roxbury with his wife Ann and the couple's two kids - but he never took strong warnings from neighbors about local wildlife seriously - until he was scared senseless by a recent encounter.

Leary reveals he had stepped out in his underwear for a morning coffee and a cigarette with his dogs when he saw a giant beast waiting in his driveway.
He says, "5:30 on a Sunday morning about a month ago... I get up, (get a) hot cup of coffee, go outside, have a cigarette... I'm in my underwear, not a bright thing to do either. And like that, a bear pops up in the driveway out of the woods... It's a huge black bear... He's right in front of me."

Now the actor is taking note of advice on how to cope with the bear problem in the neighborhood because he doesn't trust his instincts.

Leary explains, "The first thing they say (is) make yourself big. Me in my underwear, I look like an even bigger toothpick... Bears will eat you because their cubs are nearby but they will also eat you if you're just an annoying guy... All of a sudden the bear looks at us and he just ambles off. I felt like I was a tall cow and I froze up."