Black Bear in my yard

“I went downstairs tonight to do some work on the computer. We live in a raised ranch where the main living area is upstairs and there are a couple of bedrooms and my office downstairs. My wife was reading a book on the couch. She said she had noticed some movement out of the corner of her eye and she looked out and saw a bear about 30 feet high in one of the trees.

She came downstairs we looked out the back door window and there was about a 250 pound black bear coming down from the tree. The back deck is raised and off the upstairs. I have two lines strung from there which I hang bird feeders on a pulley system to keep them out of reach of the bears and the squirrels. The lines are attached to the trees with steel cable to prevent squirrels or bears from chewing through the line they're strung on.

The bear could not get at the bird feeders with sunflower seeds, but climbed down and sniffed around the remains of sunflower seeds that had fallen to the ground. The squirrels pretty much pick this stuff clean. I went upstairs to get the camera, but the window reflects the flash, even with the camera pressed tight against it, so I don't have any pictures. I ran upstairs and got the bird feeder from the front yard (also hung on a pulley system from the front of the house) and put it in the garage. I quickly went back inside the house right before the bear ambled around the side of the garage and sniffed around the front yard. We called our 3 neighbors with dogs and told them not to let their dogs out for awhile, as there was a bear in the neighborhood. It turns out that the bear had already been at their house and got their bird feeder hanging on a sheperd's crook.

The bear was not more than ten feet away from the picture window in our kitchen. We turned off the lights in the kitchen and just watched the bear walk around and sniff around. Thankfully, I have security lights that come on automatically, so we could get a good view of the bear as it got dark outside.

After the bear wandered off, I went out on the back deck and took the two remaining feeders down and placed them in the garage. I made a lot of noise walking around to the garage in case he was anywhere nearby. I guess if the bear had wanted, he could have had a main course of skiracer with a side of seeds.

I love living in NH!”

“Cool!”

“How neat! Bears in the yard - I am jealous! :-)”

“You can have my bears. Take the deer too. (THEY EAT EVERYTHING) Take the chipmonks too. I'll keep the humming birds (mountain laurel) but they will dive bomb you if you place the feeder too close to where you are sitting.”

“I hate it when I find bears in my yard, especially if they are pointing their guns at me.

seriously though, very cool. unless I had kids then that would have bothered me.”

“We like having all the wildlife on our property. We may own it, but it's their property to roam. We've seen deer, moose, bear, fox, turkey, bobcat, owl and have heard coyote and fisher cat. The first time I saw a black bear, I was amazed at how easily they could climb right up the trunk of any tree able to support their weight.”

“Cool Beans

I think Artex is going to want to see some proof of this though”

“We've had a wild turkey hanging around at one of the local car dealerships and they say it won't go away. It crosses the 4 lane hwy to eat spilled seeds at the Tractor Supply Co. then comes back to the dealership!I wish I had a bear!”

“Cool. I'll stop complaining about deer in my yard eating everything. Bears are in another league altogether.”

“You don't have to live in the woods to encounter bears out the window anymore. Apparently, a bear was captured a couple of weeks ago in Sayreville, NJ. (If you Mapquest that, you'll see that it's a pretty densely built-up town in the first band of suburbs around the NJ cities.) Apparently the bear was just hanging out in a tree in a local town park.

Anyway, the bear was released somewhere in southern Somerset County, NJ which is a bit more wooded than Sayreville, but still kinda suburban. But anyway, experts are saying that we should expect the bears in the northern NJ hills to start expanding southward as they continue their unprecedented expansion into suburban New Jersey. The bears here are absolutely thriving on typical backyard things like bird feeders, people's garbage, any other type of food left outside (think barbeque or picnic), etc.

Makes sense though. If you want to live out in the woods, you're gonna have to share your backyard with the locals...”

“Critters in the woods aren't a problem if left alone. They have a natural fear of humans. Ambling thru your woods or yard isn't a problem.

The problem begins when folks from our urban area's think they're cute & start feeding them. Either on purpose, bird feeders or garbage. They lose their fear of humans & become a problem & very dangerous.”

“I didn't say they were a problem or nuisance around here. I love living where I live in a rural setting and one of the reasons is the amount and variety of wildlife that visits.

If the bear visits again within the next couple of weeks, I'll end up taking the bird feeders down and missing out on the variety of birds that visit on a daily basis. Bears are the reason that I put the bird feeders up in the morning and take them down at night, usually right before dusk.”

“That's the wrong attitude to take ski, match with with the bear and come up with inventive ways to keep the feeders up and keep the bears off. I love fighting the squirrels every year and devising ways to test their learning skills and watching their attempts at various activities, like climbing a metal pole smeared with KY jelly (Don't use vaseline, the petro products destroy waterproof fur) Or stretching ever thinner cabling from the trees to see just how acrobatic the squirrels can be. Luckily we don't have bears, but a family of flying squirrels has moved in, so THAT is gonna take some ingenuity to keep the feeders safe. I love flying squirrels.....”

“jeez, I've already got them strung on a pulley system about 20 feet off the ground with steel cables at the end. The trouble is that one end is attached to the house. The house has vertical wood siding that a bear couls conceivably climb. If at all possible, I'd like to keep the bears off my house. :-)”

“Skiracer, koi pond owners frequently run electrified lines around their pools to shock any critters that want to eat the fish. You could do something like that with the cables. The birds won't be affected by this.”

“A black bear once decided to use a corner of our cabin as a territory marker. He reached up as high as he could and bit into the wood, leaving canine holes you could put your little finger in. The highest mark was almost 7.5 feet tall. That's a big Black Bear”

“We had a bear in the yard last night sniffing all around. At one point, I went to the bedroom window near my dresser and looked to see if I could see him in the back. His head was just a couple of feet through the window. He had climbed the “bear stairs” on the deck and was considering coming onto the deck. He calmly walked around the house, obviously searching for food. The bird feeders were still out and he stood beneath the one in the front, but couldn’t reach. He started to climb the tree where the line for the birdfeeder is attached, but must have heard something and climbed back down. All of our windows were open with the screens in place.

He was probably only two years old...I’m guessing somewhere around 150-175 pounds. I think they leave their mother when they are two years old. Take a look at the picture and judge for yourself.



There are a few other pictures in my album of the bear, but not as clear.
last edited: 7/28/05 6:45:04 AM”

“Don't pay attention to pics 3, 4 or 5. They are pictures that are too dark, but were taken of a bear in back of the house another time. I'm not sure how to delete them from the album without deleting the album and starting a new one.”

“wow ski! Cool pix, thanks.”

“great pic, nice yard too.”

“Someday I'll post picture of the ferocious chipmunks that invade my yard.

Then you will all quail in fear.”

“quail in fear? Mmmmkay. Little birds.”

“quail
intr.v. quailed, quail·ing, quails
To shrink back in fear; cower.


[Middle English quailen, to give way, probably from Middle Dutch quelen, to suffer, be ill. See gwel- in Indo-European Roots.]”

“On Tuesday, there was a turkey hen and four young turkeys {poults?} following her in the yard.

We also get the killer chipmunks and squirrels. They're not afraid of anything.”

“My brother and I took our kids to the park on the mountain this weekend, and the squirrels there are bold. We even threw stuff at them, didn't bother them at all.”

“Dang Bit, I actually went and looked to see if that was right. I am now quailing at your superior intellect, lol.

Cool bear pics!”

“Cool pictures.

If I were you I'd try a little negative conditioning if he returns. A number of homeowners in NJ have had bears break in looking for food. One even tore a garage door off to get at the garbage cans.”

“I really like seeing bears. That one is about 125-150 pounds. A good way to judge the weight is by putting your hand over a bear's front bear paw track. If it is smaller across than your hand by a little bit, the bear is in the 125-150. Just a little bigger and it's 150-175. By winter that bear should be up around 175 or so. The bear in Wisconsin are moving south very rapidly. The hunting/conservation program we have has led to greater increases in bear numbers than ever before. Bears were NEVER found in the hills where I grew up when I was a kid but now every time I go out I usually find tracks. It's great and I can't wait to spot a bear.”

“Good advice Violin, even though I love seeing bears they have to be taught to fear humans for their own safety. A bb gun or pellet gun works well. Rock salt from a shotgun works REALLY well. Yes the bear will feel some pain for a little while, but it is far better than the alternative.”

“Even fire crackers or other loud noise.”

“Always start out small. A tape recorded barking dog to start. Then banging pots and pans or an air horn. Then the firecrackers. The rock salt is about the second to last option. The last of course is removing the bear yourself or having the authorities do it. Most of the time it is best to report a problem animal to the authorities rather than destroy it yourself.”

“The bears we get in our yard aren't nuisance bears...at least not just yet. They quickly leave when they hear the dog bark or hear just about any noise. We take the bird feeders in at night and put them out in the motning. They are hung high enough that the bears can't reach them. I have steel cables hung from the tree to about 10 feet out and a pulley systems to raise and lower the feeders. It's not fool proof, but I dont know anything that is short of not putting out the bird feeders. We didn't put the bird feeders out last summer and still had bears visiting.

We live in the woods. We expect to see bears. Our house is built in their woods. Until they start destroying property or become a real nuisance, we'll let them roam freely. If they do become a real nuisance, we'll take steps to try and scare them off. The first thing we'd do is to only hang the bird feeders from December 1st to April 1st.”

“OK then.

Its prolly best for the birds to only feed them in the winter anywho. Having them congregate at the feeder exposes them to disease.”