PrairieDog Posted July 18 Share Posted July 18 (edited) Dang! Gently and calmly shooing it away before the cats caught on was more important than getting a pic, but a first year, Newfie-sized black bear came up to the open office door this afternoon to ask if we had any handouts 😄 Perfectly adorable, but with just the screen slider between us, he really had to be encouraged to move along. To get the door closed I had to walk right up to him as he watched, I was pulling the glass door slider before it turned around and shuffled off the porch. Funny, it was so sweet and peaceful as we were walking up to the house from the barn an hour before, just the soft summer buzz of bees and birds singing, and the warm pines perfuming the air, I had just commented to my wife, even only being just outside the Twin Cities, “who needs an ‘up-north’ cabin?” I guess the local wildlife wanted to agree. We’re actually pretty lucky he didn’t stop by while we were up at the house, he likely would have walked right in to sample the various snacks on the desks. I wonder how we would explain that deliverable delay to the clients? “A bear ate your report?” 😄 Turns out he also stopped by the watering hole on his way out. He is about to snoofle the trail cam in this shot. Edited July 18 by PrairieDog 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OrdinaryNimda Posted July 19 Share Posted July 19 These creatures are supposed to be scared of humans and run away from them at first sight/sound. There was definitely some training involved previously, aka "handouts" as you call them. Next time take a gun and fire once (up into the air). That will scare it off and ensure it stays a wild animal, away from humans. Otherwise, say welcome to the new family member. 😁 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil OKeefe Posted July 19 Share Posted July 19 Respectfully, what goes up, must come down. Shooting into the air isn't safe, and may be illegal, depending on where you live. An air horn is what I'd recommend. They also work well when dogs are getting into a scrap with each other. And also, maybe get some bear spray. If the noise from the air horn doesn't startle him and encourage him to move along, the bear spray almost certainly will. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sparquelito Posted July 19 Share Posted July 19 NO. Shooting into the sky, and airhorns, they just won't get the job done. I'll send my ex-wife up there to talk to the bear. That should do the trick. 😗 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PrairieDog Posted July 19 Author Share Posted July 19 1 hour ago, OrdinaryNimda said: These creatures are supposed to be scared of humans and run away from them at first sight/sound. There was definitely some training involved previously, aka "handouts" as you call them. Next time take a gun and fire once (up into the air). That will scare it off and ensure it stays a wild animal, away from humans. Otherwise, say welcome to the new family member. 😁 Sigh, no, no, no. Sure, grown bears are shy, they’ve figured out humans are generally lousy. This was just a silly, curious first year. They are as clueless to danger as human teenagers. That is why it didn’t run away immediately. Mom had just kicked it out of the house in favor of new, younger siblings. It happens every year. The yearlings are wandering around trying to figure out where dinner is and asking, “is this food?” We all are bear savvy up here, I assure you, none of my neighbors are socializing it. There is no need shoot off guns or traumatize them to get them to learn to avoid where people are. I only had to walk up to the screen and firmly but quietly tell it to move on. Just the sound of my voice was sufficient to have it decide this place wasn’t going to pan out. Actually, in fact, you don’t want to scare it so bad it panics and runs amok, possibly right into the building. You just want to convince it to move off. They are looking for peace and quiet, not an area with lots of activity and intrusions. I gotta tell you, I’m sure glad I got the chance to get so close. Looking that deeply into its eyes was pretty cool. Anyway, in this case no reward, so no reason to come back. Unlike the pair of smaller, younger 1st years visiting our 2nd story deck and the bird feeders back in April. They were awfully cute. It was hard shooing them off. One tumbled and landed in a bush, but it bounced and was okay. They came back a few times because they had scored some food, even if it was a handful of birdseeds and peanuts. All we needed to do was bring in the feeders for a while to convince them that patch had been cleaned out. Then a few years ago, a full grown bear walk up on my wife while she was photographing birds out at the back of our land. It was just lumbering along and she realized it probably couldn’t see her in the grass, and she was downwind so it couldn’t smell her. She just calmly stood (camera ready), and said “Hey Bear!” Like she was greeting a friend. It looked up at her, paused for a moment (for some beauty clicks) then shrugged and just changed course to go around behind her. Trouble is, she lost him in the woods, so had to walk the long way around the fields back home to be sure she didn’t come up on him and surprise him again, 🙂 This little guy will eventually settle into a suitable habitat, either down by the river or deeper in the woods. Males have to go quite a distance to steer clear of mom since she doesn’t want them nearby. The female cubs are often allowed to stick around. 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ksdaddy Posted July 19 Share Posted July 19 I’ve been terrified of bears all my life. But one night I thought I heard a noise from our attached garage. The garage door was open and the trash can was just inside the door. I flipped on the light and saw a big BEAR starting to root through our trash. I turned into Strother Martin and bellowed “GET THE F___ OUT OF HERE!” And he promptly did. And then about 30 seconds later, I began breathing again. 2 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PrairieDog Posted July 19 Author Share Posted July 19 2 hours ago, ksdaddy said: I’ve been terrified of bears all my life. But one night I thought I heard a noise from our attached garage. The garage door was open and the trash can was just inside the door. I flipped on the light and saw a big BEAR starting to root through our trash. I turned into Strother Martin and bellowed “GET THE F___ OUT OF HERE!” And he promptly did. And then about 30 seconds later, I began breathing again. Chuckle, good for you! I’m sure that was exciting. That was exactly the right thing to do, and you can tell that was all you needed to do since he compliantly booked off. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil OKeefe Posted July 19 Share Posted July 19 2 hours ago, ksdaddy said: I’ve been terrified of bears all my life. We have lots of wild critters here in the foothills of the San Bernardino mountains where I live, including black bears. The bears have never bothered me, and don't scare me. Stay away from their food and their cubs, try to give them notice that you're in the area ("hey bear..."), and they'll generally leave you alone. It's the mountain lions that worry me. They will actively hunt people (especially kids) and pets if they're big and hungry enough. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PrairieDog Posted July 19 Author Share Posted July 19 46 minutes ago, Phil OKeefe said: We have lots of wild critters here in the foothills of the San Bernardino mountains where I live, including black bears. The bears have never bothered me, and don't scare me. Stay away from their food and their cubs, try to give them notice that you're in the area ("hey bear..."), and they'll generally leave you alone. It's the mountain lions that worry me. They will actively hunt people (especially kids) and pets if they're big and hungry enough. What a great area you are in. Hope you can stay safe from the fires out there. We have several trail cams set up around our place to see who comes by. Besides the usual deer, raccoons and bears, we’ve had fishers, otters, grey and red fox, even an unofficially confirmed wolverine (The DNR asked us to collect a touch DNA sample from it’s tracks but covid shut down the lab the next day, argh). The one thing we’ve always hoped to capture is a mountain lion. There don’t appear to be any residents right now in the state, but they have been spotted passing through, and when they do, it’s often just a couple miles from us, following the St Croix river. I’m not eager to meet one in person, but it sure would be cool to have one show up on the camera. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sheepdog1969 Posted July 20 Share Posted July 20 This is how Disney gets rid of unwanted bears. ‘Drunk’ Disney bear cancelled over ‘derogatory and offensive’ name After 50 years, Liver Lips McGrowl will no longer be on show at the Country Bear Jamboree https://www.telegraph.co.uk/us/news/2024/07/18/disney-world-liver-lips-mcgrowl-drunk-bear-offensive/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sheepdog1969 Posted July 20 Share Posted July 20 11 hours ago, PrairieDog said: even an unofficially confirmed wolverine 1st, Adamantium infused skin combined with super human healing powers would most likely prevent "cross contamination/contact" DNA collection. 2nd, Huge Ackman is too much of a gentleman to provide a scat sample, outside of a proper WC, so that's out. However, a discarded, chewed up cigar butt may provide the Wolverine DNA confirmation desired, fyi. 18 hours ago, Phil OKeefe said: If the noise from the air horn doesn't startle him and encourage him to move along, the bear spray almost certainly will. (Olfactory) I have found that "opportunist/scavenger" critters. like bear and racoons, can be "led around by their nose", as it were. Just as "good food smells" easily draw them in; overwhelmingly caustic vapors, (or other aerosolized substances), that irritate mammalian nasal passages, drives them away. These critters primarily rely on their keen sense of smell to find food, find a mate, etc., to survive. As such, they will instinctually go to great lengths to avoid areas that have previously endangered their olfactory sense. Aerosolized Capsaicin works well, (bear spray), but so does liquid capsaicin, (hot sauce). Avian species, (birds) are unable to detect/taste capsaicin on their food, (they do not experience the "burn" of capsaicin"), but mammals do! I do not have "bird feeders", (save for the thistle and other Prairie plants that grow naturally on my property, that feed birds naturally,). But my friends that do use "bird feed" in feeders, don't have squirrel/racoon/bear issues, because they treat their bird seed with hot sauce/tabasco (capsaicin) before putting it in the feeder. PS - Thanks Phil for pointing out the dangers of discharging a firearm into the air, FOR ANY REASON. (ballistic projectiles negligently discharged, "into the air", return to earth at nearly the exact same velocity at which they originally exited the barrel of the firearm, which is lethal.) Discharging any firearm, for any reason, in any manner that does not allow the shooter a reasonable expectation of the projectile(s) striking the intended legal/legitimate target OR a safe/non lethal area between, beyond, or adjacent to said target, is always illegal, regardless of where the firearm is discharged from. Firearms discharging ballistic projectiles are NOT ever to be used as "noise makers". Blank rounds are available for said, if no other options exist. (Don't cook off a round into the ground for this purpose either, unless you want to pepper yourself with bullet fragments, or kill someone with a ricochet.) 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karloff Posted July 20 Share Posted July 20 20 hours ago, Phil OKeefe said: Respectfully, what goes up, must come down. Shooting into the air isn't safe, and may be illegal, depending on where you live. An air horn is what I'd recommend. They also work well when dogs are getting into a scrap with each other. And also, maybe get some bear spray. If the noise from the air horn doesn't startle him and encourage him to move along, the bear spray almost certainly will. I live in upstate PA. not far from the NY state line. The air horn works unless there's cubs. Mama bear could care less about an air horn ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PrairieDog Posted July 20 Author Share Posted July 20 (edited) 2 hours ago, Sheepdog1969 said: 1st, Adamantium infused skin combined with super human healing powers would most likely prevent "cross contamination/contact" DNA collection. 2nd, Huge Ackman is too much of a gentleman to provide a scat sample, outside of a proper WC, so that's out. However, a discarded, chewed up cigar butt may provide the Wolverine DNA confirmation desired, fyi. (Olfactory) I have found that "opportunist/scavenger" critters. like bear and racoons, can be "led around by their nose", as it were. Just as "good food smells" easily draw them in; overwhelmingly caustic vapors, (or other aerosolized substances), that irritate mammalian nasal passages, drives them away. These critters primarily rely on their keen sense of smell to find food, find a mate, etc., to survive. As such, they will instinctually go to great lengths to avoid areas that have previously endangered their olfactory sense. Aerosolized Capsaicin works well, (bear spray), but so does liquid capsaicin, (hot sauce). Avian species, (birds) are unable to detect/taste capsaicin on their food, (they do not experience the "burn" of capsaicin"), but mammals do! I do not have "bird feeders", (save for the thistle and other Prairie plants that grow naturally on my property, that feed birds naturally,). But my friends that do use "bird feed" in feeders, don't have squirrel/racoon/bear issues, because they treat their bird seed with hot sauce/tabasco (capsaicin) before putting it in the feeder. PS - Thanks Phil for pointing out the dangers of discharging a firearm into the air, FOR ANY REASON. (ballistic projectiles negligently discharged, "into the air", return to earth at nearly the exact same velocity at which they originally exited the barrel of the firearm, which is lethal.) Discharging any firearm, for any reason, in any manner that does not allow the shooter a reasonable expectation of the projectile(s) striking the intended legal/legitimate target OR a safe/non lethal area between, beyond, or adjacent to said target, is always illegal, regardless of where the firearm is discharged from. Firearms discharging ballistic projectiles are NOT ever to be used as "noise makers". Blank rounds are available for said, if no other options exist. (Don't cook off a round into the ground for this purpose either, unless you want to pepper yourself with bullet fragments, or kill someone with a ricochet.) Thanks for backing up the bit about the bullets. Really dangerous way to approach a really simple problem. We have to cope with yahoos who come up from the city to visit our neighbors who are firearms “enthusiasts” and enjoy shooting off their various weapons. Our neighbors are safety conscious, but their young relatives from the city think they are in unoccupied wilderness just because they can’t see the houses nearby. Aside from the occasional Tannerite explosions stopping your heart and knocking things off the wall in the middle of a puttery Sunday afternoon, the weekends full of random shots and even automatic rounds (I’m assuming because the sound is the same uninterrupted, rapid fire like you hear in war movies) triggers the PTSD of our vet friend. And how much fun it is when we have guests over, enjoying a quiet summer evening on the deck only to have the conversation interrupted by the soundtrack from Saving Private Ryan. Our city friends freak out. It drove our dogs into panics so bad we had to ask the neighbors to let us know they were going to start shooting so we could give the pups valium or else they smash through the house hurting themselves trying to get away from the noise. Not to mention that we moved up here from the city specifically to get away from the constant gun fire in our old neighborhood. Anyway, one day my wife was out walking in the woods behind our barn when the shooting started. A beat later she heard pattering raining down on the barn roof then bits of something pelting down her. She didn’t know what was going on, until it happened again right after another round fired off. She booked into the barn, and called me to say what was happening as more shots and more stuff came down on the barn. Even up at the house, I had thought the shots sounded closer than usual. There is about 6 acres of wetland and woods separating our two places. Nobody answered my phone call, so I jumped in the car and sped over there. As I drove up I saw the kids in the back yard and a new girl holding a rifle, with one of the boys helping her. It seemed he was teaching her how to shoot. They were at the edge of the pond, target shooting across the wetland towards our property, right where my wife had been walking! (They have 13 acres and a wide shooting alley where they could have been firing cleanly away from anything). I jumped out of my car screaming a foul blue streak. Surprised by this new commotion, they all turned to look at me and the girl cluelessly swung around with the loaded rifle pointing right at me. The kid next to her had the presence of mind to pull it skyward before she accidentally tensed up and pulled the trigger. Anyway, they apologized and then literally tried to excuse it by saying, “Oh, we didn’t know there was anything over there!” WTF? You don’t fire if you don’t know where the bullets are going!! Don’t get me started on all the lead they dumped in the wetland used by the eagles and other wildlife. Their backyard where the children grew up playing probably has more lead in the ground than an old urban city block. Their youngest has a neurological issue that is common with lead poisoning, but they never made the connection with where the kids played and the family hobby. All the lead from the charges discharges in a cloud and settles on the clothes and ground around the shooter. Then the lead gets tracked into the house where it gets picked up by the HVAC where it gets breathed in, and settles on every surface. Well, do that for a decade…. if we were in the city, the building inspector would order the soils and house to be decontaminated before they could sell it. Now they are about to be grandparents, and won’t it be fun for baby to run around that big, lead soaked backyard! Edited July 20 by PrairieDog 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pinch Posted July 22 Share Posted July 22 I probably wouldn't want to come across a full-grown black bear. Or would I? I'm guessing he or she would probably leave me alone, and it'd be an exciting story to tell. Cute bear in the pic. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PrairieDog Posted July 22 Author Share Posted July 22 21 minutes ago, Pinch said: I probably wouldn't want to come across a full-grown black bear. Or would I? I'm guessing he or she would probably leave me alone, and it'd be an exciting story to tell. Cute bear in the pic. Nod, chances are. Here is the adult that was coming up on her, unaware my wife was in the grass in front of him, that I mentioned in my earlier response about how little it takes to get them to shuffle off. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil OKeefe Posted July 22 Share Posted July 22 On 7/19/2024 at 3:29 PM, PrairieDog said: What a great area you are in. Thanks! I really like it here. Quote Hope you can stay safe from the fires out there. Thanks again – as the old saying goes, from your lips to God's ears! We had one that was about 1,200 acres just a couple of miles from here earlier this year. We've had wildfires all of my life in various parts of California. It's one of those things that they don't mention in the "Come visit California" publicity commercials. The other one they don't mention is the floods. Yes, we have always had lots of droughts, but the floods–monumental, devastating floods, like the Great Flood of 1862–are also something the state deals with on a semi-regular basis. The Central Valley turns into a massive lake every 150-200 years, on average. Fortunately, I'm up high enough that floods aren't an issue where I live, but the fires definitely can be from time to time. Quote We have several trail cams set up around our place to see who comes by. Besides the usual deer, raccoons and bears, we’ve had fishers, otters, grey and red fox, even an unofficially confirmed wolverine (The DNR asked us to collect a touch DNA sample from it’s tracks but covid shut down the lab the next day, argh). The one thing we’ve always hoped to capture is a mountain lion. There don’t appear to be any residents right now in the state, but they have been spotted passing through, and when they do, it’s often just a couple miles from us, following the St Croix river. I’m not eager to meet one in person, but it sure would be cool to have one show up on the camera. Wow, you must live in the country. Lucky you! I'll bet it's a nice area, too. I've seen plenty of bears, coyotes, foxes, raccoons, beavers (up in the mountains near Big Bear/Fawnskin), bobcats, and various other critters, but never an otter (at least not near here – I've seen them up the coast near Monterey) or a wolverine anywhere near here. My daughter lives up in Crestline and caught a mountain lion walking past her driveway on her security cameras this last winter, and a bear trying to get into her trash just a couple of weeks ago. Not that she needed it, but it was a good reminder that she shouldn't let my 3 year old grandson go outside unattended. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PrairieDog Posted July 22 Author Share Posted July 22 9 minutes ago, Phil OKeefe said: Thanks! I really like it here. Thanks again – as the old saying goes, from your lips to God's ears! We had one that was about 1,200 acres just a couple of miles from here earlier this year. We've had wildfires all of my life in various parts of California. It's one of those things that they don't mention in the "Come visit California" publicity commercials. The other one they don't mention is the floods. Yes, we have always had lots of droughts, but the floods–monumental, devastating floods, like the Great Flood of 1862–are also something the state deals with on a semi-regular basis. The Central Valley turns into a massive lake every 150-200 years, on average. Fortunately, I'm up high enough that floods aren't an issue where I live, but the fires definitely can be from time to time. Wow, you must live in the country. Lucky you! I'll bet it's a nice area, too. I've seen plenty of bears, coyotes, foxes, raccoons, beavers (up in the mountains near Big Bear/Fawnskin), bobcats, and various other critters, but never an otter (at least not near here – I've seen them up the coast near Monterey) or a wolverine anywhere near here. My daughter lives up in Crestline and caught a mountain lion walking past her driveway on her security cameras this last winter, and a bear trying to get into her trash just a couple of weeks ago. Not that she needed it, but it was a good reminder that she shouldn't let my 3 year old grandson go outside unattended. Oh, so cool bout the mountain lion! Grandson would likely scare the bear away, but yeah, the ML…another story. Yes, we are in the “country”, but only about 40 minutes from the Twin Cities. We’re in an area along the St Croix National Wild and Scenic Riverway, the first wild river designated in the country. Our spot is in a hefty wooded and wet area, and bordered by farmland. So lots of different habitats and room for critters to roam, which is critical for a healthy wild ecology. Sad thing is open space is dwindling out here with urban sprawl, and the proliferation of solar farms chopping up the migration routes and habitats with fences. We’ve noticed a lot of regulars are now missing from our trail cams these past few years. We did have a mink this spring on the deck, that was fun. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pinch Posted July 22 Share Posted July 22 (edited) 1 hour ago, PrairieDog said: Nod, chances are. Here is the adult that was coming up on her, unaware my wife was in the grass in front of him, that I mentioned in my earlier response about how little it takes to get them to shuffle off. This is conclusive proof that bears know how to use combs and hairbrushes! Edited July 22 by Pinch 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PrairieDog Posted July 22 Author Share Posted July 22 1 hour ago, Pinch said: This is conclusive proof that bears know how to use combs and hairbrushes! And if you scroll back up to the photo of our young visitor the other day, you might able to make out, it’s a typical teenager, his back all tousled, obviously going for the grunge look. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RBSinTo Posted July 22 Share Posted July 22 When I saw the title of this thread, I thought it was the start of a Borscht Belt joke. "Stop me if you've heard this one. A priest, a rabbi and a bear walk into a bar....." RBSinTo 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.