Had two black bears walk through our backyard last night.

[Silurian]

Only foxes and badgers here. We only see bears when they're accompanied by a David Attenborough voice over.

[Pitar]

We have them in abundance here in central Florida. Last year they had a culling and in two days local hunters bagged the total count of 300+. In my neighborhood a couple years ago a mama bear hauled off a home owner when she went into her garage. There were two cubs in there she was not aware of. Her son chased after the bear and that saved the woman's life, or so it has been reported. She lives around the corner from me. So, humans: 300+, Bears: Zero.

[Brucebubs]

I've hordes of these wild beasts digging holes in my lawn at night.



Bandicoots!

Just a little smaller than rabbits for those unfamiliar.

[Mr. Jelly]

Back in the 50s on a family vacation in Yellow Stone we fed young bears with our hands while mama and other bears hung around. Vacationers lined up and stopped to feed the bears. Those were different times.

One day my brother and I were walking down a trail and see a bear walking the other way coming at us. So we walked off the trail a bit and watched the bear go by. Then we followed it through the camping area. We gave him/her enough room to feel safe :-) Like I said those were different times.

[RP]

FWIW we had a rabid bear killed nearby several years ago...

An attack by a rabid bear was ended by an Albemarle County farm worker’s point-blank shotgun blast, fired from the roof of a Gator utility vehicle, police said.

The bear killed Tuesday is the first-ever recorded case of a rabid bear in Virginia and only the second case on the East Coast that state officials are aware of, said Jaime Sajecki, bear project leader with the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries.

“It’s almost unheard of,” she said.

Police believe the bear was drawn by the movement of two men, who were using the vehicle to move stones on a large farm northeast of Rockfish Gap, said county police Sgt. Darrell Byers.

The roughly 120-pound female bear first attacked the vehicle itself, biting one of the tires, before pursuing the men, Byers said.

One of the men climbed into the bed of the Gator, then onto its roof, taking a shotgun loaded with birdshot with him, Byers said.

The other man left the cab, but when the vehicle started to roll downhill, he leaned back into the cab to set the parking brake, according to Byers.

The bear had come into the cab and was climbing into the bed when the man atop the Gator put his shotgun to her head and pulled the trigger, Byers said.

No one was injured in the attack or directly exposed to the rabies virus, Byers said.

The bear was decapitated, and its head sent to a state lab, where it tested positive for rabies, according to police.

But authorities doubt there are any more rabid bears out there.

“Just to have one is really unusual, and it would be, I think, near impossible for another bear to have it,” Sajecki said.

Rabies is transmitted through contact with saliva, brain matter or spinal fluid of infected animals. The infected tissue must contact an open wound or mucous membranes to infect a new host.

The virus alters the behavior of afflicted creatures, making them more likely to bite, Sajecki said.

The most likely way for a bear to get rabies is, just as for a human, a bite from some other animal that’s already infected, said the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries’ wildlife veterinarian, Dr. Megan Kirchgessner.

There’s a vanishingly slim chance that the bear could have contracted the disease eating an infected carcass if she had a cut on her paw or in her mouth, Kirchgessner said.

Health officials will try to type the rabies in question in the hopes of figuring out what sort of animal it came from, but the test isn’t sure to work, Sajecki said.

Bears are solitary most of the time, Sajecki explained, so they aren’t likely to transmit rabies to one another. The bear killed Tuesday wasn’t lactating, which indicates she probably didn’t have cubs that could have contracted the disease, she said, and breeding season won’t really get under way until summer.

[dhalbert]

Originally Posted by Wade Hampton

We live in a moraine butted up against the Chugach mountains, and a lot of wildlife passes through our neighborhood.

In late March 1982, I went to Alaska to visit some friends in Fairbanks. Before that I was in Anchorage by myself for a few days, and decided to take a hike in Chugach State Park (there wasn't enough snow to go x-c skiing). I started at the nature center and walked in a few miles. Then I sat down on a log to eat lunch: hardboiled eggs and a few other delicacies. At some point I started to freak myself out, thinking maybe this wasn't such a good idea, if there were hungry bears awake and around. I finished up quickly and walked back at a quick pace, making a lot of noise. Never did find out if I was being paranoid or not.

[Wade Hampton]

You usually don't have to worry about eating your lunch when you're in the woods up here; it's leaving food where the bears can find it while you're sleeping or out of camp that's the main problem.

That said, we've had two deaths from bear attacks up here in the past week and a half: one was a teenager competing in a relay race up the mountains in the park, another was a co-worker and longtime friend of my daughter, who was out in the field doing an environmental impact study when she was killed. She and my daughter were friends in middle school and high school.

Anyway, my daughter's very upset, because not only were they friends and colleagues, but they're both botanists engaged in the same sort of field work.

This brings the total of people I've known who were killed by bears to five. The other four were all killed by brown bears, (grizzlies,) but these latest attacks were all by black bears. (There have been some nonlethal maulings by black bears in the past couple of months, as well.) There just seem to be a lot black bears AROUND - my son saw one while he was on a walk around the neighborhood a few days ago; whether it was one of the ones that passed through our yard last night, we couldn't tell you.

I'm all in favor of the bears having to register with the DMV and being issued license plates, so we can tell them apart. But so far the bears have been unenthused and noncompliant with that.....


whm

[chitz]

We just have Armadillos & Alligators.

[HHP]

Originally Posted by Wade Hampton

You usually don't have to worry about eating your lunch when you're in the woods up here; it's leaving food where the bears can find it while you're sleeping or out of camp that's the main problem.

That said, we've had two deaths from bear attacks up here in the past week and a half: one was a teenager competing in a relay race up the mountains in the park, another was a co-worker and longtime friend of my daughter, who was out in the field doing an environmental impact study when she was killed. She and my daughter were friends in middle school and high school.

Anyway, my daughter's very upset, because not only were they friends and colleagues, but they're both botanists engaged in the same sort of field work.

This brings the total of people I've known who were killed by bears to five. The other four were all killed by brown bears, (grizzlies,) but these latest attacks were all by black bears. (There have been some nonlethal maulings by black bears in the past couple of months, as well.) There just seem to be a lot black bears AROUND - my son saw one while he was on a walk around the neighborhood a few days ago; whether it was one of the ones that passed through our yard last night, we couldn't tell you.

I'm all in favor of the bears having to register with the DMV and being issued license plates, so we can tell them apart. But so far the bears have been unenthused and noncompliant with that.....


whm

Every two years, we all have to train for replacement of technicians should there be a strike.. I usually end up with an assignment for the East Coast, the Midwest, and the West coast. In addition to technical training, you have to go through a lot of safety courses. For people assigned to AlaskaTel, they have to also pass a certification for using a high powered rifle. Odd, as people assigned to Gary, Indiana probably need it more.

If you live in a state that has several high powered firearms named after it, that should tell you something. There are no "Ohio Rifles" or firearms named "Kansan" but there are several big bore rifles and pistols named "Alaskan". Not for nothing.

[perttime]

Originally Posted by Alex6strings

I'm shocked at the bear stories in this thread. I had no idea. If I had bears in my yard I'd probably move to another continent, one without bears, like Australia. Yes we have dangerous and poisonous animals, but they're all friendly, except the sharks and crocs, and snakes, spiders are cranky to. But mostly, very friendly.

A Koala is not a bear.

...

You didn't say anything about the drop bears.

This guy has been looking after some orphaned bears:

[Steve DeRosa]

Originally Posted by Wade Hampton

...I've seen bears' calling cards on the lawn many times, (do I need to spell out what that was? Here's a hint: they don't get them printed out at Kinko's.)...

So much for the old proverb about whether bears crap in the woods...

Originally Posted by HHP

...If you live in a state that has several high powered firearms named after it, that should tell you something. There are no "Ohio Rifles" or firearms named "Kansan" but there are several big bore rifles and pistols named "Alaskan". Not for nothing.

Given where I spent the first ten years of my teaching career, I'm waiting for something chambered in .577 Crown Heights...

[LSemmens]

I read this on the internet so it must be true:

All outdoorsmen should wear small bells on their clothing so as not to startle bears that aren’t expecting them, and to carry pepper spray with them in case of an encounter….

It is also a good idea to watch out for fresh signs of bear activity. Outdoorsmen should recognize the difference between black bear and grizzly bear droppings. Black bear droppings are smaller and contain lots of berries and fur. Grizzly bear droppings have little bells in it and smell like pepper.

[TBman]

I live in NJ. I'm an accountant. This is me.




This is me if I lived in Alaska with bears:

[Mycroft]

After 20 years living in Alaska, I have a fair few bear stories given my fondness of hiking, fishing and mountain biking. But one of my favorites occured in the middle of Spenard, which is a neighborhood smack dab in the middle of Anchorage, the most urban area in Alaska.

This was back when I was driving a cab. It was a warm summers day, sunny and in the low 70s, so I had all the windows down. I had picked up a couple of touristas from the lower 48 at the airport and was taking them downtown to The Cook. (People who have spent time in Anchorage will recognize the details. For anyone else there is always Goggle Maps if you really want to know)

So I'm on Minnesota slowing down for the light at Tudor. No other cars around, given it is a sunny summer sunday. When up out of the empty Spenard Builders Supply parking lot lopes the biggest, ugliest dog that I've ever seen, running right at my car. It takes a moment for my eyes to refocus, and exclaim "Holy ****, that is a bear!"

I thought it was going to jump into my window. Ran about 10 behind the car. Looked to be a juvenile. Made my customer's visit, I'm sure.

TW

[KevWind]

Originally Posted by LSemmens

I read this on the internet so it must be true:

All outdoorsmen should wear small bells on their clothing so as not to startle bears that aren’t expecting them, and to carry pepper spray with them in case of an encounter….

It is also a good idea to watch out for fresh signs of bear activity. Outdoorsmen should recognize the difference between black bear and grizzly bear droppings. Black bear droppings are smaller and contain lots of berries and fur. Grizzly bear droppings have little bells in it and smell like pepper.

Ha yes have heard variations for years . I like these also


All kidding aside making noise and pepper spray are in fact a good idea in bear country. I tend to go strapped as well if it's allowed