My Teddy Bears

Just on the other side of the road from where I live there is about 1000 acres of DNR wilderness land, where it seems that the local Black bears do their hunting. I'm told these bears live about 1/2 mile east of there, in the Hay River valley where they live and fish in the river.
Unfortunately my driveway is the most expedient route from their hunting grounds to their dens, so I have adult bears waddling down my driveway every night at about 8:30 PM this summer.
I used to BBQ about that time, but now I don't go out very much after twilight. I'm told bears are scared of people, but frankly I'm scared of bears!!
How dangerous are "domestic" bears?

I heard that bears in British Columbia in the last couple years have started breaking dorrs in to houses to get food, as their usual habitats are getting smaller, urbanized.
Bears are going through garbage cans, and staying at garbage dumps, for food, as human food is a lot tastier than what they find in the wild I guess.

I would stay indoors too when I knew they would be around.
Maybe there are deterrents.

Not sure if you want to shoot one though.

A farmer told me when a bear was hit by a shotgun blast, it howled and cried and it was hauntingly eerie , almost like if you wounded a small child, because the bears don't know any better and don't understand why somebody would hurt them.

Black bears are fairly common in my area as well (Northern New Jersey). I've gotten very used to seeing them in the 15 years that I've lived here.

I tell my kids (ages 7 and 11) that if they're outside and they see a bear, "don't yell, don't freak out or make a scene, just get your asses in the house till it goes away."

They won't out-and-out attack people for no reason because humans are not part of their regular menu, but like any wild animal, if you get in one's way or piss one off it might defend itself.  There have been a few times over the years when one has come thru the yard while I've been out there, and all I've had to do is clap my hands and go "HEY! Get the f**k outta here!" -- they usually take right off.

A few years ago my dog (a golden retriever who was maybe 120 lbs) chased a bear outta my yard that had to be at least three times his size. So generally they do not like confrontations and will avoid them whenever possible.

Also, if your trash cans are outside, you might want to consider keeping them in the cellar or garage during the spring/summer months when they're most active. Leaving a trash can outside is like ringing the dinner bell for bears. Just a few weeks ago we heard a racket from my neighbor's backyard (they were away for the weekend) - a good sized bear had gotten into their trash can, spread their garbage all over the yard and he was picking through the offerings like he was on the buffet line at Golden Corral. Haha

The other problem with seeing the bears is that they are also seeing you.  Once they become familiarized with people they become a lot less skitterish.  And are less likely to run off when confronted.  Even more so when the food pickings are good.

With the drought and fires we've had a problem with mountain lions coming down.  With two young children it drives me insane to see many of my neighbors ignore the warnings and still leave their trash out all night.  

I always go on the assumption that if something is wild it is also unpredictably dangerous.  Bears would be at the top of that list.

Black bears like French bread pizza. I know this from experience.

Yeah but can your bears do this ?

Hey! That's just an unhygenic Mormon. How can you be so cruel?

He just wants to pass on the good word... and magic underwear or something.

I know if there were bears around my home I'd go no where near them. I think faced with one of those I'd find out just how bad-ass I am not! Haha! We do get the occasional lobo/wolf and bobcat near our home.

Just remember, when faced with a bear, draw yourself up to your full height, put your arms out to the sides, and make noises like Phil Anselmo as Batman.

This will scare off said bear UNLESS said bear is a Pantera fan. In which case, begin to sing every song from Metal Magic.

ultmetal wrote:

I know if there were bears around my home I'd go no where near them. I think faced with one of those I'd find out just how bad-ass I am not! Haha! We do get the occasional lobo/wolf and bobcat near our home.

Or the occasional chupacabra.

007 wrote:

Yeah but can your bears do this ?

There's some clearer footage in this report:

https://gma.yahoo.com/jersey-bear-spotted-walking-hind-legs-154616502--abc-news-pets.html

Poor thing.  They think he's walking like that because he has a badly injured front paw.

tohostudios wrote:

007 wrote:

Yeah but can your bears do this ?

There's some clearer footage in this report:

https://gma.yahoo.com/jersey-bear-spotted-walking-hind-legs-154616502--abc-news-pets.html

Poor thing.  They think he's walking like that because he has a badly injured front paw.

Yeah that was mentioned on the newscast I saw of this yesterday. I also read today that some expert thinks this may be a hoax (a person in a suit)  .

Allright, thanks a lot as usual guys. The thought of actual bear was mildly frightening, but the idea that this might be a dude in a bear suit running up and down my driveway is like 100x more distrurbing for some reason. I'm probably gonna hafta move away now.
Cowering in basement listening for sounds of zippers being pulled down.