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Post by Deleted on Oct 26, 2015 9:52:23 GMT
A bear at last!
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Post by deyana on Oct 26, 2015 13:13:06 GMT
I know right? At last!
I'm hoping this won't be my only sighting, I'd still like to get a photo or two one of these days.
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Post by nycgirl on Nov 1, 2015 20:11:55 GMT
Great photos of the bear in the sprinklers, Kimby! He's such a handsome guy. Interesting info about hyperphagia, too.
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Post by breeze on Nov 1, 2015 21:15:05 GMT
It's fun to see a bear from a safe distance. But they are fast runners and very effective climbers, so the farther away the better. They are quite strong too.
One morning we found the sliding door popped open on the old VW bus where we'd put honey supers stored temporarily. A bear trying to get in must have managed to bump the door handle, which caused the door to pop open, and then it was easy for the bear to slide the door open and get to the honey. It didn’t get it all, so E tied the door shut. The next day we found that the bear had bent the window frame down to get inside.
Our dog was none too intelligent but she was plucky. One day Molly was barking seriously, not just "UPS truck within 5 miles" or "that dog across the valley is barking so I will too." I went outside and heard "oof" coming from along the electric fence. I could see a young bear. I ran to close the gate and to let Molly loose, thinking she'd hide under the porch. But she ran directly for the bear. Since they were on opposite sides of the fence Molly could only bark from that position, but it sounded stern enough to get the bear to turn tail. However, the bear kept hugging the fence, so it wound up coming back in our direction. This time Molly ran out under the gate and chased the bear away into the woods.
I thought this was a good time to walk down for the mail. Molly came with me. On our way back the bear surprised us, just about to cross the lane in front of us, and Molly chased it up a tree.
I’m never plucky so I ran back to the house and tried to get Molly to come back. She was having the time of her life! Eventually she came back SO pleased with herself. The bear slipped away quietly.
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Post by nycgirl on Nov 1, 2015 23:26:28 GMT
Wow, that is a gutsy dog!
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Post by Kimby on Sept 6, 2022 15:55:09 GMT
Time to update this old thread with recent bear activity. Proof that they are around. This one is a “good bear”, no garbage in his poop! (Pliers are for scale.) We don’t see them often. But what a handsome little fella! NEVER have we witnessed this behavior before. We were torn between watching him and shooing him away before he wrecked this hawthorn tree trying to get at the berries. (The tree survived.)
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Post by kerouac2 on Sept 6, 2022 16:06:29 GMT
I thought bears climbed trees quite often, including Winnie the Pooh;
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Post by Kimby on Sept 6, 2022 16:31:00 GMT
“Witnessed” is the key word here, K2.
REAL bears tend to be kind of crepuscular. We rarely SEE them. Just evidence of their passing.
Some of our less-tidy neighbors have had issues with bears breaking into their sheds or garages to get their garbage, or scarfing up fallen apples under their apple trees, or even breaking into chicken coops and vehicles. (One local bear learned to pull up on car door handles!)
Once a bear gets “food-conditioned” though, it is likely to be “relocated” by Fish, Wildlife and Parks wardens. It gets its ear tagged before release, and if that bear returns to populated areas and is “misbehaving”, it will likely be “euthanized”.
“A fed bear is a dead bear.” 😢
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Post by bixaorellana on Sept 6, 2022 16:43:56 GMT
This is fascinating, Kimby. I guess people would feel all warm and Disneyish watching a bear eating fallen apples. But the part where a bear would consider the orchard and surrounding area its territory is sobering.
What would constitute "misbehaving" -- any incident of too much intrusion into humans' space?
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Post by Kimby on Sept 6, 2022 17:06:51 GMT
Break-ins to houses, garages, sheds, chicken coops and apiaries (= bee hives). Bears LUV hunny!
Also being too bold and not able to be scared off. Bears SHOULD be timid around people. They are big enough to hurt us, and that “can’t be allowed”.
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