We live in rural western PA. Seeing a black bear is a rarity. I saw one near Johnstown PA from my car. At first I thought it was a black Labrador Retriever. I saw one behind my house years ago.
Monday morning a friend sent me this picture of a bear on a side road about an hour from my business. He took the picture from his truck, and was surprised the bear stood there for so long.
My business is a 12-15 minute drive from my home. Walking through the woods it is about 5 or 6 miles. Wouldn’t you know it, Monday night the dogs were barking and I looked outside to see if squirrels were raiding the bird feeders. Nope,it was a bear.
I think it was the same bear. My gf took the picture, and the window screen ruined the shot. He shook the tree for a while and destroyed two nice bird feeders. I went out the front door and “shooed” the bear away. He eventually ambled off, in no hurry. It was big!
We have zero outdoor garbage cans and no compost pile. Now we have two fewer bird feeders. Any other tips to discourage him/her from coming back? I used him as an excuse to justify peeing outside.
Buy a canned air horn. Bears are easily frightened by unusual noises. Of course, you have to actually be there to use it. Otherwise, nothing I know of will keep a bear out of your garbage or bird feeders.
Maybe your pee smells like large bear whereas hers smells like rabbit.
A bear and a rabbit are both taking a shit in the woods.
The bear asks the rabbit “Do you have a problem with shit sticking to your fur?”
And the rabbit replies “No.” So the bear wipes his ass with the rabbit.
Other precautions to take would be no food of any kind outside. Nothing on the deck. Take down all of the bird/squirrel feeders until he’s gone. The birds will be bummed, but he’ll keep coming back for them. Better a few weeks with nothing then a returning bear. Nothing in your cars, trucks, etc. Bears will go right into your car for french fries under your seat. Bears will go into kitchens, so try and put everything away. They can recognize things through windows, so out of sight is best. The less the bear finds to eat, the better.
I’m not sure what you’re putting out for the horses. If it’s hay, no problem. If it’s oats, sweet feed, carrots, then you’ll need to watch that too. I don’t think a black bear would normally go after horses, unless he were really starving. I’ll try to research that.
Not too much you can do other than put away anything they can eat. Bears do whatever they feel like doing. Dogs barking will sometimes get them moving on, but not always.
The horses are on pasture now. They get a small amount of pelleted feed each morning (although the vet would rather they not) mostly as a reason for them to be in the barn to be looked over and sprayed with flyspray.
He destroyed $120 worth of bird feeders yesterday. I took down the rest.
I walked over to our neighbors to let them know. Their bird feeders were not touched yet. They took them down rather than lure him.
I was surprised the dogs barking didn’t scare him off the other night. I went outside and yelled, “Get outa here!” and he just turned and sauntered off. Other bears I’ve seen have been more timid.
Just went up to check our blueberries. I’m surprised he didn’t go after them.
Unfortunately, the more a bear “profits” from his traverses, the more likely he is to become habituated and return, return, return. The trick is to make sure he never gets a reward for his efforts.
Alert your neighbors, make sure they put trash in a secure place.
Also make sure to keep food items out of your cars.
Watch for signs the bear has become too accustomed to humans; e.g., nose or paw prints on your windows or doors. If this happens, it’s time to call Fish and Game or whoever the wildlife authorities are in your area for some help. At least, that’s the standard here in Oregon before F&G will come address a habituated bear. They consider a bear who is willing to test those barriers to be a dangerous bear.
A well-fed black bear is probably the least troubled creature on the planet. It is well aware that there isn’t much around that can tell it what to do, so it doesn’t care about much of anything other than its stomach. I have had them literally just walk through my camp without even looking at me because they just didn’t think I was worth their time. There are times I have done the whole ‘scream at them’ and they won’t raise their head from what they are doing. Sometimes they’ll find it amusing and head in your direction to see what you’re screaming about. The only way to really bother them is to open up bear season with dogs and for obvious reasons they head away from population centers and they learn to fear dogs. PA doesn’t have a dog season though, so you’re out of luck on that one. You’re also out of luck because the bear population has expanded well out of their traditional ranges, so there is no hunting culture in the areas where they now exist. C’est la vie. Just learn to live with them and get used to some dead dogs every now and again and torn up trash containers on a pretty regular basis. Such is the lot of living somewhere with wildlife.
Is there a university near you with a good Engineering department? Put an ad on Craigslist - any freshman Engineering student could almost certainly finagle a motion-activated system that blows an air horn, using spare parts from a washing machine.
Not for nothing, I live in a part of Missouri in which bears were once abundant, then driven nearly to extinction, and are now coming back. The Missouri Department of Cute Critters has a website where you can track the animals that they’ve tagged, and it appears that a sow has been traipsing about within about five miles of me. I hear that Missouri bears are not much bigger than a [very] large dog. I’m not in a hurry to find out.
I keep bear repellant and a air horn when I am out on our property. We have hunting dogs in an outdoor kennel and free range chickens. Plus a large garden full of good treats. It’s a problem to keep wildlife at bay. I just assume I live in their neighborhood l, so I must sacrifice a certain amount of dog feed and fruits and veggies to them. As long as they aren’t nuisance animals I can live with them. If they ever come onto my deck or in my direct personal space I would consider deadly force
. Last resort, though.
ETA I am more afraid of coyotes.
When I left a few years back, they had wolves coming down into the state. Some folks weren’t happy about that, but I thought it was an interesting development.
We live in the Colorado mountains. So bears are not uncommon.
We keep trash in the shed between taking it into town. This has caused some problems, such as the door to my shed being ripped off twice.
I think I found a trick though. Crushed moth balls. I put them on the two steps up to the shed, and in the door. I think a snootfull of that discourages them. And helps cover up the smell of trash.
We really don’t have anywhere else to keep the trash. I take it to a transfer station twice a month.
