I realize this isn't the best photo. It was starting to get dark and he'd just knocked over our bird feeders. We were more concerned with getting him out of our yard than taking a picture. Right when I snapped this he was on the move—over the wall and across the road. Apparently he doubled back because our neighbors (behind us and up the hill) called a short while later and told us he was after their bird feeders. Their dogs chased him away and back towards our next door neighbors house.
The funny thing is we knew he was around. Last week my husband said that we really needed to start taking in the feeders at night (which is kind of a hassle so easy to put off). Sure enough that very night he knocked over the pole that supports four feeders and scattered seed and pieces of broken feeder everywhere. Our neighbor told us that, a few nights later, someone saw him running away from a chicken coop with a chicken in his mouth. I suspect we're in for more drama with this hungry little guy. And, yes, I do mean little. This is a second year bear, first year away from mom, and he's going to get much bigger!
Update: Last Saturday, about 5 miles from here, a mother and three newborn cubs were up in a tree in someone's backyard. Since this was in a town they had to call animal control, who tranquilized the bear and moved her and the babies out into the woods somewhere. Hopefully not our woods—we have enough problems of our own :)
5 comments:
We had a similar occurrence a few summers ago on my parents' back porch in Michigan only it was after the hummingbird feeders and much older. It is very intimidating to experience and even moreso when you grab the shotgun and realize the only ammo you have in the entire house is birdshot, which would only serve to make it angry if you actually had to use it. Luckily, the dog barking and people yelling got it to climb down from the elevated back porch and a shotgun boom from firing into the ground below the deck (only place you could know you wouldn't hit anything but the ground) as it ran off into the woods motivated it to run away faster. We no longer sleep with just the screen doors anymore even though the summer breeze from them is so nice; the actual doors must be closed and locked every night.
I was told that some of the bears didn't even go into hebernation this past winter....When I in the market near my home the owner said he saw the bear all winter back and forth in and out of his yard
....I have not heard of this before ....The bears are defintely
intimidating aren't they but they do have somewhat of a clumsy yet graceful presentation wouldn't you say !!
Stephen Colbert would have a field day with this!
That's one big dude! I'd be intimidated.
Jessa, he wasn't that big. But intimidating for sure. People think bears are slow and lumbering in their movements but they're actually very fast and too smart for their own good :)
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