No lions, no tigers, but Bears Oh My!

Becky1951

Becky1951

🌹
Location
Tennessee
Last night around midnight I heard a snorting sound, more like a sniffling. My bedroom window was open so I used a flashlight and looked but didn't see anything.
It was quite after that.
This morning I was walking around back of cabin and saw prints. Bear paw prints! 6ft from my bedroom. Started back to get my phone to take pictures but it started raining hard. We have bears all around us here in Tennessee but that is just to close for comfort.
 

I live in Northeastern Pennsylvania. We have a lot of housing developments, and in between them are forested areas. That's where the deer and bear live. Since those areas are so close to houses there's not much hunting. Our bears get to big and fat-400-500-600 lbs. Generally, they stick to themselves, and just mess with trash cans. They really aren't people predators. The problem is when people feed them. They are not stupid animals, they know there's more food than what your handing out. One thing I love about the bears is their beautiful, shiny, jet black coats. They sleep for months, but when they come up out of a hole, they look so clean, with that deep black fur. I wake up, and crawl out of bed, and I look like hell.
 
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"One thing I love about the bears is their beautiful, shiny, jet black coats. They sleep for months, but when they come up out of a hole, they look so clean, with that deep black fur. I wake up, and crawl out of bed, and I look like hell."

Maybe your not hibernating long enough. 😂🌹
 

Becky1951 said:
Last night around midnight I heard a snorting sound, more like a sniffling. My bedroom window was open so I used a flashlight and looked but didn't see anything.
It was quite after that.
This morning I was walking around back of cabin and saw prints. Bear paw prints! 6ft from my bedroom. Started back to get my phone to take pictures but it started raining hard. We have bears all around us here in Tennessee but that is just to close for comfort.
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Stay safe @Becky1951 , we've never lived in an area where there were bears near our house, but got pretty close to some while out camping in the US, Canada and Alaska. The Grizzleys are beautiful too, their reddish blondish tones in the sunlight is a sight to behold, magnificent animals....beautiful!
 
A few years ago I started having bear up at my house. At the time, I had been here for 7 years without such incidents, but I started buying seafood from a local shop and I think the smell of the wrappers attracted them.

So I got up one morning and noticed a smudge on my patio door at eye level. I looked real close, and it was a paw print, with a nose smear off to the side.
 
Gary O' said:
Our bears are not very secretive
They just lumber across the porch around 3am, amble over to the can and use the garbage lid like a tray
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I live in an area where lot sizes range from smallish like mine (50 acres) to hundreds of acres.

The guy in the next property over and I were talking, and he told me he used to put out scraps of food in front of his game camera to see what kind of deer he had on his property. So one evening he walks a bunch of watermelon rind out to the spot and lays it down. The next morning he got the SD Card out of the camera, put it in his computer, and scrolled through the pictures.

So he scrolls through and sees himself in front of the camera putting out the rind with a 7:00PM time hack.
The next picture at 7:15PM was a bear eating the watermelon rind!

The thing had been watching from the woods, waiting for him to leave so it could go eat!!
He told me he stopped putting food out after that.

The thing about my bears was that I had open-tray bird feeders set up all year round for years, about 5' up, and they never bothered them. I think it took that strong smell of fish just as they were going into hibernation (such as they do in central Virginia) to lure them in.
 
In The Sticks said:
The thing about my bears was that I had open-tray bird feeders set up all year round for years, about 5' up, and they never bothered them.
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I used to tightly secure the suet block cage to a tree limb near the cabin window
No more
Ran outa suet cages, and limbs near the cabin window

I used to have a five gal bucket of cracked corn near the feeding station
...until one night Mr Bear tore the lid off, laid on his belly.....and gorged himself
 
I set up my cameras and they only came around at night.

I believe the blurry pics are due to (a) night vision pics, and (b) fur that doesn't lay flat so there's no clear contrast.

PICT0054.JPG

I have a couple of a cub all by itself: once at 8PM and then again at 2AM. That 01/01/09 date hack is incorrect. It was November of 2016.

I've had the adult up on that small porch leaning against the door while messing in the trash. Yeh, I was worried about intrusion.

It's funny, they were around like clockwork--once in November, then again in April--for 3 years in a row (in to/out of hibernation), even though I started keeping the garbage in the garage after the 1st incident. Then it stopped as quickly as it started.
 
In The Sticks said:
It's funny, they were around like clockwork--once in November, then again in April--for 3 years in a row (in to/out of hibernation), even though I started keeping the garbage in the garage after the 1st incident. Then it stopped as quickly as it started.
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Yeah, ours get driven out of wild fire areas
So, late summers can get busy at night...or day
See 'em ambling down logging roads quite often
 
Black bears seldom attack people according to the nature shows I have watched. Grizzly bears aren't so kind. I think the legend of Davy Crockett may have risen from killing a black bear. Sorry Tennessee people but killing a grizzly with a knife only Brad Pitt can do that.
 
fmdog44 said:
Black bears seldom attack people according to the nature shows I have watched. Grizzly bears aren't so kind. I think the legend of Davy Crockett may have risen from killing a black bear. Sorry Tennessee people but killing a grizzly with a knife only Brad Pitt can do that.
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Yup.

But as I tell people, I'm not gonna take the risk that the bears around me have read the same "black bears are gentle" websites that I have.
 
Gary O' said:
Yeah, ours get driven out of wild fire areas
So, late summers can get busy at night...or day
See 'em ambling down logging roads quite often
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There's a 300 acre property that adjoins mine off to one side. It's been through 3 owners the past 10 years. The current owner is the guy who started the Inogen (portable oxygen) company...it's his "weekend place."

A few years ago there was some logging done over there. I don't know if they were setting up other outbuildings at the back of the lot or if they were trying to make some money. I know that some hawks got displaced and came my way. Maybe bear did as well.

There had also been some clear-cutting on my property maybe 15 or 20 years ago (I've been here 10.) Piles of debris still scattered around in the woods. In Virginia, bear live in brush piles and all sorts of stuff. So I have plenty of mid-Atlantic bear habitat. Heck, they've been spotted at Virginia Beach!!! (That's on the Atlantic Ocean.)
 
fmdog44 said:
Black bears seldom attack people according to the nature shows I have watched. Grizzly bears aren't so kind. I think the legend of Davy Crockett may have risen from killing a black bear. Sorry Tennessee people but killing a grizzly with a knife only Brad Pitt can do that.
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Black bears are in the Piney Woods @fmdog44 ... see any around the neighborhood?
 

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