I love bears, my wife loves them even more. One strolled up to our house, hooked the bag out of our trash can and sat under our walnut tree, snacking on some Bojangles chicken bones. I thought about trying to run him off but the bears around here have lost their fear of Humans and, needless to say, That’s a fight I am saving for when and if I am diagnosed with a terminal illness. (Running Joke, that’s also my Native wargaming name).
Nice pic and a happy Tuesday to you as well.
Thank you. 🙂 Bears are very smart and quickly figure out that where there are humans there is probably a meal. Our garbage bins here are bear secure and that helps to minimise bear and human interaction. It’s always the poor bear who comes off on the wrong end of that, without a doubt. I’m glad you didn’t try to chase the bear away; they’re quite strong. 😉
It used too be that you could run a bear off essentially by bluffing. Get big by raising your arms, throw stones and making some ferocious noises. I say “Used too be”. Our local ursine community has grown too bold to fall for that. Now I think the strategy is to make calming sounds from a non-threatening posture, throw your lunch at it to buy a few seconds and walk, don’t run, away. The “Roll up in a ball and play dead” myth has been pretty well debunked as well. The new memo says that, if a bear comes at you with bad intentions, your best chance at survival is to fight back with everything you’ve got, since it would seem the bears didn’t read the play dead memo.
I know that the playing dead strategy doesn’t work, and I’ve heard that it’s best to walk away slowly. I’ve only encountered a bear (while hiking) once, and he turned and ran away very quickly. I think we both scared each other!
…and humans hoping that bear is indeed a vegetarian. Always good to see a bear from a safe enclosure or a safe distance. I am sure they are very curious about humans. Happy Tuesday Lynette. Allan
We were in our truck and slowed down to get around him. He did give us a rather thorough look with his salad leaves hanging out of his mouth. He was probably wondering if we tasted better. 😉
Someone needs to start cranking out some new Darwin award tombstones to keep up with demand. An animal may not want to eat you but that doesn’t mean it won’t kill you.
They certainly can be! They are so smart, too. They can open screw-top jars and can manipulate door latches. It’s amazing, because their feet don’t seem designed for that degree of fine motor control. The garbage bin lids have become so complicated that, yes, they keep the bears out, but I can’t open them either!
I remember feeling stupid the first time I encountered a trash bin that was bear proofed. Took me a while to figure it out.
That was our only encounter away from wild areas,, but they are all over the news around here. Some time after that my wife went back to school for her degree in wildlife biology and one of the first things they teach is to never feed bears, especially if you think they are cute or socially disadvantaged. The fish and game people have a mathematical formula to bear (No pun intended) this out: Fed bear=DEAD bear. I’m just glad we have black bears here and not grizzlies or Kodiaks.
Totally agree with you, and I feel the same about black or grizzly, although the black bears in the interior tend to be more predatory than our coastal bears.
We have that on a lot of our signage here as well.
Yes, depending on their territory, the black bears can be quite aggressive.
He certainly looks well fed, that’s for sure. I love the dangling bit of greenery hanging out from its mouth.
In the Net! - Pictures and Stories of Life 
I love bears, my wife loves them even more. One strolled up to our house, hooked the bag out of our trash can and sat under our walnut tree, snacking on some Bojangles chicken bones. I thought about trying to run him off but the bears around here have lost their fear of Humans and, needless to say, That’s a fight I am saving for when and if I am diagnosed with a terminal illness. (Running Joke, that’s also my Native wargaming name).
Nice pic and a happy Tuesday to you as well.
Thank you. 🙂 Bears are very smart and quickly figure out that where there are humans there is probably a meal. Our garbage bins here are bear secure and that helps to minimise bear and human interaction. It’s always the poor bear who comes off on the wrong end of that, without a doubt. I’m glad you didn’t try to chase the bear away; they’re quite strong. 😉
It used too be that you could run a bear off essentially by bluffing. Get big by raising your arms, throw stones and making some ferocious noises. I say “Used too be”. Our local ursine community has grown too bold to fall for that. Now I think the strategy is to make calming sounds from a non-threatening posture, throw your lunch at it to buy a few seconds and walk, don’t run, away. The “Roll up in a ball and play dead” myth has been pretty well debunked as well. The new memo says that, if a bear comes at you with bad intentions, your best chance at survival is to fight back with everything you’ve got, since it would seem the bears didn’t read the play dead memo.
Sorry for the extra o’s and commas. I need a new keyboard.
I know that the playing dead strategy doesn’t work, and I’ve heard that it’s best to walk away slowly. I’ve only encountered a bear (while hiking) once, and he turned and ran away very quickly. I think we both scared each other!
…and humans hoping that bear is indeed a vegetarian. Always good to see a bear from a safe enclosure or a safe distance. I am sure they are very curious about humans. Happy Tuesday Lynette. Allan
We were in our truck and slowed down to get around him. He did give us a rather thorough look with his salad leaves hanging out of his mouth. He was probably wondering if we tasted better. 😉
You interrupted his dinner?!? Not a lot of salad grows in the middle of the road!
Haha. 😀 He was eating the salad growing next to the road and then walked on to it when he heard us coming.
Someone needs to start cranking out some new Darwin award tombstones to keep up with demand. An animal may not want to eat you but that doesn’t mean it won’t kill you.
Haha. 🙂 We stayed in our truck. No tombstones for us!
Nothing shy about that little guy! Though I couldn’t tell his size. All that fur!
He was actually quite large. This one was probably about 80 kg (170 lbs). And yes, very furry with very big feet!
80 pounds–not too bad. My dog is 75 pounds!
He was 80 kilos, which is about 170 lbs, so a bit bigger than your dog. 😉
Yikes! Duh–I completely confused that. Thank you for fixing that in my head!
That trash can needs to be secured until pickup time. It has become a real problem on the outskirts of cities.
That problem was addressed years ago, but thank you for the good advice.
Glad to hear it. Those bears are persistent though, aren’t they?!
They certainly can be! They are so smart, too. They can open screw-top jars and can manipulate door latches. It’s amazing, because their feet don’t seem designed for that degree of fine motor control. The garbage bin lids have become so complicated that, yes, they keep the bears out, but I can’t open them either!
I remember feeling stupid the first time I encountered a trash bin that was bear proofed. Took me a while to figure it out.
That was our only encounter away from wild areas,, but they are all over the news around here. Some time after that my wife went back to school for her degree in wildlife biology and one of the first things they teach is to never feed bears, especially if you think they are cute or socially disadvantaged. The fish and game people have a mathematical formula to bear (No pun intended) this out: Fed bear=DEAD bear. I’m just glad we have black bears here and not grizzlies or Kodiaks.
Totally agree with you, and I feel the same about black or grizzly, although the black bears in the interior tend to be more predatory than our coastal bears.
We have that on a lot of our signage here as well.
Yes, depending on their territory, the black bears can be quite aggressive.
He certainly looks well fed, that’s for sure. I love the dangling bit of greenery hanging out from its mouth.
He had salad for lunch. 😉 Actually, he was looking at us like we might provide him with something better. A bite of us, maybe?? 😉