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Bear sighting
We had some friends come to visit from the city. We gathered up all the kids and went apple and pumpkin picking.
We were all done and I started wheeling a cart of pumpkins to my truck when a girl leaned out her car window and said 'look out for the bear". I am in the middle of a crowded parking lot with literally hundreds of people roaming about so I was thinking "yeah sure honey, keep drinking'  All of a sudden I hear women screaming to their kids to "come here" and shouts of "bear". The kids(not mine) were playing tag at the edge of the orchard very close to where the bear was. I was now a believer so I headed up the hill between where the bear and the kids were . Some worker drove up on a quad and said too look out because the bear was now pretty close. He was trying to encourage the bear back into the woods with the quads motor noise. Eventually the bear crossed the driveway and went into the woods but not before causing a real stir. This place was packed so it was not agood place for a bear.
I will say the bear seemed disinterested in us and also that apples must be very healthy for bears cause this sucker looked at least 300 lbs. and the worker said he was the SMALL one.
I tell you I did get a little nervous when he lumbered across the road even though I was armed. I am glad that bears are most times happy to go their own way!
Real nice healthy looking animal , I bet he eats all he can every day after closing.
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Bear sighting
I'm pretty used to facing down grumpy bears off-hours at the dump. What works best for me is sharp coughs rather than whistles etc. and sort of 'Ali like' feet shuffling. I don't worry much as long as they're not facing me. After a few encounters I know I can crowd them a bit as long as they aren't facing me, and they'll eventually move further away so I can get close enough to fling my stuff in the pit. That's all I want to do and I assume all the bear wants to do is rummage in the pit. It's a fair trade and the bears are just a bit grumpy. If they turn toward me I know I have to back off a bit. I do have my bear spray with me and wouldn't advocate anybody else do this. I learned my stuff from friend who is a bear guide.
Our trouble around here is that we're used to normal bears, but we're in an area used to relocate problem bears from other places--even though relocation doesn't work. We've got a bunch of bear that already have bad habits and are likely on their way back home for the most part. We've had a run this year in particular on bear breaking into people's homes while they are there. I guess it's left to us to shoot them 'cause there's no place else to re-locate them.
My request to people in more populated areas is don't feed bear--intentionally or otherwise. They just associate people with food and end up around here left to us to shoot. The people who hunt them around here's freezers were already full by mid-summer. Most people really don't want to shoot them just to cure a problem 'cause then you have to deal with a stinky dead bear.
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Bear sighting
I used to run into bears in the mountains in California. Some of these bears were also relocated bears from closer into the cities and they generally were used to human contact.
One night I was sleeping in the open bed of my pickup truck and it started rocking. My first thought was Earthquake. I woke up and looked around and there was one of the bears trying to get my cooler out from under the truck. He had his mouth around the corner of the cooler and was really shaking and tugging it enough to shake the truck.
The cooler was wedge tightly underneath the truck and I had put rocks wedged under the edge of it to secure it under there. The bear never did get it out or broken open. Finally, he went on his way.
It turns out that some "neighbors" in the campsite area thought that the bears were "cute" and placed food out on rocks right in the middle of about a dozen campsites. We explained to the "neighbor" in the public campsite that they were not only endangering themselves, but the rest of the people in the area. We were there for about four days, and we had bears in the camp pretty much every night.
The "neighbor" had not fed the bear anymore as far as I know, but he kept coming back to see what he could find. Nobody ever got hurt, but I wasn't upset when the bear decided to tear up the camp and equipment of the "neighbor" that had fed him in the first place. That happened on the last night of our stay there. Some lessons come harder than others.
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Bear sighting
I agree with what you guys said. I also have no problem sharing my space witht he bears or MOST other creatures. The only thing a little unnerving about this situation is that it is ongoing and there are literally hundreds of people, many children whosould easily turn the corner of the next apple tree and end up in this or the other bears lap.
Bears cross my property in the morning but they give us a wide berth and it is in the early AM hours.
If it was me and I owned this obviously thriving business I think I'd try to get animal control to relocate this bear. I fnot maybe a quad full of apples in the woods might keep him occupied for the day
Scratch that thought, forget about feeding the bears if something happens the owner may be "feeding the lawyers". We all know they are a much more menacing creature and they never leave once they get a taste!  I can here it already, "so Mr. Jones you knew there were bears but you never warned the parents who frequent your establishment, nor did you put up any warning signs, didn't call the authorities...yadda, yadda, yadda
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Bear sighting
Couldn't agree more. Bears and a bunch of people, especially people who may not be used to them don't mix and especially if there are cubs around. Two bear were shot in town a couple weeks back and one was a sow with cubs in a school yard. Kids were disturbed and the lettters to the editor debate eventually calmed down. The sow behaved aggressively toward teachers, police were called, the sow was pepper sprayed, got separated from her cubs, became really agitated and was shot. Very tricky shooting bear in a school-yard and not something you want to happen.
I'm not sure what the solution is but I doubt that it's relocation. Even the government seminars guides have to take basically say it doesn't work. Most adults go back to where they came from if they aren't killed by larger bear whose territories they are plonked into. Young ones stay around but already have learned bad habits.
Around here we're pretty bear proofed. We know not to leave any food source outside. We only put vegetable parings etc. into the compost. We store garbage in the basement this time of year. Most people took down all their apples a month ago. Still I must know a dozen people that had bear break in or start to break in to their houses this year. Near as I can figure they are likely relocated bear that only know human habitation as food sources. Since their usual garbage cans, bird feeders, compost bins etc. aren't available are around here, they come inside. Food smells are still around and it doesn't take much. We also know that they'll remember most food sources and check them out next year.
A bear chewed up a friend's boat's plastic can tank. It was likely because he handled the tank when he was fishing. A two-year-old picked up my father-in-laws garbage can box and dumped it even though it hadn't been used for garbage in months. That was a reasonable normal bear though. My 80-year-old father in law took a long while to answer the phone and said he was out chasing off the bear, who checked out his fire barrel and then ambled down the beach. Those sorts of bear we live with OK around here. The ones that don't find anything and then break in we've got problems with and those probably are relocated bear. You can't really tell since most aren't tagged. Cutbacks; there's no vets to tranquilize them. Please give us a hand here and do your own bear proofing. That way maybe they'll stay in the bush or the dumps. The bear already outnumber people here and we just don't need any more.
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Bear sighting
Now this is a far cry from the little( it's all relative ) black bears near me but did anyone catch this story?
Link:
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Bear sighting
Last year two people were killed by black bear in Canada and that's very unusual. In each case they were alone and moving--one jogging and the other cycling. In each case the bear seemed to be hunting rather than defending. Such incidents are rare and somebody moving at speed alone likely looks like prey to a bear. It may be but it's likely a bad idea to jog alone in bear country or leave small children unattended. It's also a bad idea to run form a confrontation or to 'play dead' if attacked.
There's some research going on to see if there's a genetic component to aggressive black bear behaviour (don't need to answer that question for grizzlies). It may be a case of empty science through. Don't know what they do if it's genetics. Hand out birth control pills to sows that look like they're having a PMS attack maybe.
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Bear sighting
The old fella who lives up the roiad from our hunt camp was born & raised in that area, as were several generations of his family. He spent most of his life in the woods, as did his father & grandfather who were both professional hunters, the timber companies would hire tham to hunt to provide provisions for the workmen.
He told me years ago that he had been taught to completely ignore a charging bear, apparently when one bear spots another in the wild they will often make a mock charge, just to test the reaction of the other. In all but exceptional circumstances the charging bear will either pull up or turn away then just go on about it's business. He claims it's worse to try and shoot the bear because this only escalates the mochk charge into the real thing, a fight for his life. The bear will usually win in this case.
He claims to have been charged countless times over the years, each time he stood his ground and the bear just ignored him. He said one got so close as it went by it brushed his leg.
I'm not sure I want to test the theory, but he is still out in the woods and just fine... OF course with my luck I would find a bear who had never learned that theory...
Besides, I doubt it holds true of bears which have had exposure to humans.
Best of luck.
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Bear sighting
Don't know about brown bear but our NR people talk about mock black bear charges and I saw one years ago by a not quite adult bear. We were coming back to camp and saw a bear in somebody else's camp across a channel between lakes. We canoed over there and sort of chased the bear away but I know that's not permanent-- probably city folks (family with children) and their food wasn't tied in a tree.
The people came back as we were leaving. I said there was a bear and they probably thought we were robbing the camp. The guy stocks up into camp figuring something's going to be something missing and runs into the bear coming back. The bear charges to within about 30' and then veers off into the bush. I don't think the guy was following any sort of informed procedure (just too scared to move) but it worked. I few hours later they broke their camp and were heading back towards the store and without a glance our way or thanks for trying to help. The bear probably came back as they always do once they get on a camp. Best thing is to move camp. My girl friend at the time stopped laughing at me for putting our food up a tree. The canoe paddles too. Beaver like to chew on the handles if they get a chance.
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Bear sighting
I don't know about 'tame tigers' but I'll tell you the mostly 'tame widcat' I live with is nothing to mess with, especially if provoked.
As for charges, they're not 'mock' at all, I get the bills at the end of every month to prove it too.
The only safe spot I have found is the shop, she doesn't go out there, she says she gets dirty just walking past the place so she rarely enters, I keep the 'provisions' in an old fridge aquired for just such purpose and she doesn't get to them either.
Best of luck.
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10-06-2003, 22:58 
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