Bear in My Backyard

[mtbdarby]

I was in my spare room taking pix of things to list on ebay when a shadow went by the window. I turned around and saw a mamma bear with 3 cubs walking through my backyard! I started snapping pix before realizing the glare of the window was relecting back and messing them up, but here's the best one I have. On the left is a bear cub standing up against a tree, mamma bear is in the middle and the other two are little black blobs on the right side. They had such beautiful shiney black coats! Didn't take them long to scadadle into the swamp but it was a once in a lifetime experience I wanted to share. Enjoy - I am still so excited I got to see it!:D :D

[jeannierides]

Wow, Dar, that is wonderful! Thanks for sharing the pix!:D

[margo49]

What an expereince!
Three cubs - she must be really something else!

[sbctwin]

Cool pic!!! Glad you DIDN'T go out for a closer pic....

[mtbdarby]

Cool pic!!! Glad you DIDN'T go out for a closer pic....

Ugh,*sheepishly* I did go out after they disappeared in the swamp. The smart one - my 5 yo - said he'd stay in the house cuz he didn't want to get eaten! She was long gone....

[cosc]

A bear family in your own yard. I'd be excited too. Do you see many bear around your yard? I'm glad your son has a healthy fear of them. Thanks for the post.

[RoadRaven]

Way too cool!!!

The most excitement in our back yard is a possum... or an owl!

Biggest growliest things here are feral cats and dogs...

Thanks for telling us and posting the pic...

Road ~livin-vicariously-through-others~ Raven

[Tri Girl]

OMG- that's soooooo coool!!!! What a sight to see as you look out the window!!! WoW!

[HappyAnika]

Oh, I'm so jealous! You lucky duck. I love bears. We had a mom and 2 cubs wander down into my work campus last summer. They were lounging up in the tree. The DOW came to make sure no one got close, then the bears left overnight. Not to hijack, but I'm bored, so here are some pics a coworker took:

[Brandi]

Cuteeee!

[smilingcat]

Wanna trade houses :p So cute.

smilingcat

[short cut sally]

It is an experience that I would like to see once. My parents are plagued with 2 bears almost nightly. They have destroyed the bird feeders, my parents now either leave the feed on the ground along with bringing in the feeders nightly, my brother lives near them, one got in his dog house and thrashed around, and they come up to his back porch and the dog chases them away. Not to hi-jack your thread. Have you seen them since?

[bmccasland]

When I lived on a fish hatchery in northern Arizona, we used to see a mama bear and 1 or 2 cubs every spring/early summer. It always amazed me how silently they could walk. Seemed one spring was particularly dry, the dogs and I saw the bear family outside one corner of the fence in the evening. I was SURE I kept mama in sight, when I realized my dogs were at the other corner, and wouldn't you know it, there was mama and the cubs. How she got through the dry leaves and twigs so quietly was beyond me.

[emily_in_nc]

Gosh, I would have the opposite reaction as most here. Yes, bear cubs are cute, but a Mama bear will protect her cubs aggressively if she feels threatened, and when there is drought, bears can get aggressive in searching out food as well. Since they associate food with humans all too often, this can have deadly results.

I get nervous about bears when we hike on remote trails in the mountains, and I'm nervous to camp out because of them as well. Don't even TALK about grizzly country to this easterner...I just can't go there; black bears make me nervous enough! There have been two recent stories on the news of black bear attacks -- a black bear drug an 11-year old boy out of his tent and killed him, and the other, the father was able to throw a log at the bear before it attacked his children.

Sorry if I'm a wimp, but no bears for me....please! :eek:

Emily

[HappyAnika]

Oh don't get me wrong Emily, I have a healthy respect for and fear of bears. Its one thing when they are in a tree lounging and there is a DOW officer standing next to you with a rifle. Quite another to see one hiking or camping. We went to Montana a few years ago into grizzly country. Planned a hike but when we got to the trail you could tell it wasn't used very often. I was nervous the whole time. We had our keys strapped to the outside of our packs and sang the entire time. Then we camped not to far from there and I barely slept the whole night. I've never run into a bear on a trail, but I know it happens around here, I try to be smart about it to be safe.

Hmm, speaking of which, we are going to Montana again this summer for vacation . . . I might pick up a few bells. At least this time we are sleeping in a lodge!

[emily_in_nc]

Oh don't get me wrong Emily, I have a healthy respect for and fear of bears. Its one thing when they are in a tree lounging and there is a DOW officer standing next to you with a rifle.

Oh yes, I will agree with you there! That's about the only way I'd want to see them. My DH is dying to see a bear on one of our hikes, but I truly hope we never do. We've hiked in black bear country in the NC mountains and sang and made noise too....that gets old, though, since a lot of the reason we hike is for the solitude.

Emily

[bmccasland]

Just to make all y'all (and that IS the correct plural of y'all :rolleyes: ) comfortable in the woods...

In the 5 years I lived on the hatchery, we had to have three bears trapped and/or shot
- one sub-adult because it was acting confused, walking in circles, was out during the day. Shot and hauled off
- one because it trashed a screen door trying to get into the one house that didn't own dogs or cats. It also trashed some expensive trout solar feeders. Shot at the Girl's Camp just up the road after reaking some havoc there.
- and the third because it wouldn't scare off, and starting trying real hard to get into the feed barn. Trapped and hauled off.

We accepted the fact that we lived in bear country and did adjust our behavior accordingly - keep garbage in until garbage day, don't leave pet food outside. The Apache Tribe (reservation surrounding the hatchery) highly respected bears, so doing anything to them was a BIG Thing. In fact, the trapper was a white guy, just to keep the bad juju from getting on them. The Game Ranger had to do a cleansing ceremony after he killed the obviously sick bear (#1 above).

On the otherhand, I did have fun with tourists that were hiking the trail that went by our houses... I'd see them and shout "look out for the bears..." then check my watch. In about 10 minutes they'd be back - about the time for them to reach the gate in the fence leaving hatchery property and onto the reservation, turn around and come back. While I sat there enjoying my morning coffee. Snicker

[mtbdarby]

Nope, haven't seen them back. They are quiet. If I hadn't seen the shadow passing the window I would have never known they were around. I'll be looking for scatt in the yard (the dogs eat it though - yuck). I have one bird feeder in the front yard close to the house so most likely they wouldn't touch it. The former person who lived here had the feeders in the back away from the house and they used to come in and clean them out. That was almost 3 years ago though.

I'm keeping my eyes peeled either way....