Do bears live in the woods?

[Laura]

[SIZE=12pt] [/SIZE]

I looked out the window yesterday afternoon and noticed that Desi and Sheriff (Mia's 2 geldings 30" and 32" that live in a pen maybe 40 feet from the house) were on "alert". I looked where they were looking and saw a black bear pacing the their fenceline, then it jumped into their pen and headed towards them. I thought it was a cub, so I hit the door and yelled and it saw me and ran. The dogs apparently momentarily stupid by napping) then saw it and it took off, I *THOUGHT* it left, so I grabbed Zac, ran outside, tossed him in the car and shut the door...and grabbed my camera to try to get a shot of it running away~idiot-it did NOT run away.

After a few minutes of looking around, trying to see it running away, the dogs started barking BEHIND me!! I looked up in our big oak tree and they had it treed! I started taking pictures, but once I saw it was NOT a juvenile, I got Zac and got our butts in the HOUSE and called 911. Yes, this area HAS bears, but they are VERY shy and are not nuisance animals like in some areas of the country.

The BEAR GUY for the county was an hour away. I was just hoping it stayed in that tree!!!! Long story short, I am NOT amused. Steve (who was an hour away at work) didn't want me to shoot the bear in case I didn't kill him...wounded bear=ticked off bear, so I didn't. I watched and made sure he stayed up the tree.

Steve got home from work an hour later and stood watch (with a pistol) until the bear guy got there. Unfortunately, when the bear guy got there Steve walked over to meet him and so did the dogs. The bear promptly ran down the tree and off into the pasture towards the tree line. Now I'm freaking out.

The bear guy said they usually look for dog food, cat food & bird feeders and almost NEVER go after livestock, but this one jumped into the paddock with horses and was going towards the horses (like 15" away) while I watched. Desi & Sheriff's paddock borders my backyard and is literally 20' from the kids' swingset!

He said if he comes back into the yard or with the horses I wasn't supposed to shoot him, but that he grew up on a farm and he wasn't going to tell me NOT to shoot the bear if I felt he was a threat to the livestock or kids...you're dang skippy I'll shoot him next time!!

He was going to trank him and transport him 3 plus hours away. That's fine with me, he just has to CATCH him...there are chickens and kids in this yard and I'm worried he now knows now where easy food is if he gets desperate...plus it's REALLY wierd that he was here at 5 pm, with 90 plus degree heat...that just doesn't seem right...

So, here is the visitor...by the way, I've already heard people say, awww, look how cute he is and he doesn't LOOK very big...well, black bears here are NOT that big, maybe 120-150 lbs, but that tree he's in is a HUGE oak tree and that branch under him (the lowest in the tree) is close to 30" in diameter! He looked cute to me too, until I got close enough with the zoom to see the way he was looking at me. He was NOT smokey the bear~LOL

Look at his cute face...then look at his eyes..

 

[LittleRibbie]

Gosh my days seems so boring compared to yours!! Please Laura, tell me you werent that close to that cute little bear and that you really had to zzzzooooom in on him. May I see photos of your watch dogs!!

Now you have to add "bear catcher" to your...I am not a veterianarian,doctor.....

Thanks for the great story!! Heidi

 

[strass]

Too Cute!!!

I am so jealous that you got to see him in person and take these awesome pics.

...and yet...

I am so NOT jealous that you have a precious bear wanting to eat some tender foals.

Realistically, he’s got easier food in mind than getting kicked by a horse. Dog food left outside is going to be a mighty tempting smell. Luckily for you black bears are omnivores and he should be able to get his fill of berries, grubs, and squirrels without becoming desperate from starvation. I'd still keep an eye on him.

 

[crponies]

Laura, I for one am not envious of you to have a bear around acting like that. I have seen what a bear did to a pig before and it was not pretty. I can only imagine that it could do quite the same to one of your precious minis with one swipe of its paw. I hope this bear either never comes back or comes back and gets taken care of one way or the other.

 

[dreamlandnh]

Sounds like my house a few years ago. Only mine came out in the morning. I don't care how cute a bear is, it is a bear and I don't want it at my house! They told me too we couldn't shoot it but could shoot over it's head...now that is smart there is a dairy farm next door and the neighbors behind me are a distant off but I would never shoot towards their house. I carried a boat horn with me for about a month when I went to the barn.

 

[li'l bit]

Hopefully he was just passing through your property. From what I understand they like to keep traveling. They go through our area every summer. They have destroyed all our bird feeders so many times that I gave up and make my own out of milk jugs now. Not as pretty, but they do the job and replacing bird feeders can get frustatingly expensive. We have seen them at all different times of the day, so not TOO abnormal to see him at 5:00 pm. (I think

)

Lucky you to get such super pictures of him. I have never been able to get it together enough to get even one shot of one of them. When they are at the bird feeders they are only about 10 feet from our patio door but I'm not about to go out there for a photo and taking it through the window doesn't work. They do look just like big, beautiful teddy bears but..............looks are deceiving in their case.

 

[Laura]

[SIZE=12pt]I REALLY hope it doesn't come back. I hope the dogs spooked it enough to discourage it. It was not rooting around in the shed looking for dog food or whetever, it was stalking those two horses and VERY purposefully jumped into their paddock and started towards them. Maybe it wanted to play, but I kind of doubt it.

Desi and Sheriff did NOT want to play. [/SIZE]

I'm getting people e-mailing and saying "Oh it wasn't stalking those horses, how can you even THINK about shooting a bear", well, I beg to differ. I saw what I saw and it was NOT aimlessly wandering around.

My poor terrified yearling colts (in an adjacent paddock) stayed huddled up in a corner of their shed for HOURS last night and would NOT leave, even when I tried to chase them out. I eventually did get them back out into the field, but it took a while.

We do have LOTS of berries in this area and a great, fairly secluded place pretty far down off of the back of the mountain that would be great place to be a bear. He's welcome to stay there. I think it's pretty cool. We make plenty of noise if and when we go down there to alert him to get away, but my yard...yikes!

 

[Bunnylady]

I'm certainly no bear expert, but I can tell you what I've heard. That looks like a young bear. I forget if it's one year or two, but Mama Bear looks after the kids for just so long, then tells them to vamoose, it's breeding time for her again. At that point, they are pretty vulnerable, not having territories of their own, and pretty dumb, because they haven't had to make decisions themselves for long. We have had the occasional bear turn up in downtown Wilmington, one caused quite a bit of excitement on the campus of UNCW a couple of years ago!

I certainly would worry about minis with that guy. My bet is, he was "testing," not sure what they were and whether they were possible prey. Since they didn't attack him, I believe they were in serious danger! The good news is, he may already be out of your area, but I'd be keeping a lookout for quite a while!

 

[CKC]

Wow, Laura that's crazy! I would be upset too. I also, thought that looked like a young bear in the face, but then again I've never been anywhere close to a bear to tell.

We have one around here that seems to visit and I do worry about the horses. This one likes to hit up my nieghbors. It stands at the back of their deck and looks in their house. YIKES! They had lots of bird feeders that this one was attracted to.

This is a sad reminder of what can happen when a bear attacks.

http://www.miniaturehorsetalk.com/index.ph...;hl=bear+attack

 

[Laura]

Wow, Laura that's crazy! I would be upset too. I also, thought that looked like a young bear in the face, but then again I've never been anywhere close to a bear to tell.

We have one around here that seems to visit and I do worry about the horses. This one likes to hit up my nieghbors. It stands at the back of their deck and looks in their house. YIKES! They had lots of bird feeders that this one was attracted to.

This is a sad reminder of what can happen when a bear attacks.

http://www.miniaturehorsetalk.com/index.ph...;hl=bear+attack

I remember that :-( I also remember the mare we all prayed for for months that finally recovered from Hyperlipemia and then was killed by a black bear

...what was her name...I can't remember, she had a filly while she was so sick...

No, it does not happen often, but it CAN happen. Looking at the pics again and really thinking on it, it probably was a younger bear. I REALLY hope he's too scared to come back.

 

[Magic]

[SIZE=12pt][/SIZE]

I'm getting people e-mailing and saying "Oh it wasn't stalking those horses, how can you even THINK about shooting a bear", well, I beg to differ. I saw what I saw and it was NOT aimlessly wandering around.

I'm guessing that the people who are saying that haven't heard of all the other bear attacks on miniatures that have happened over the years, and as CKC posted the link, many of those turned out VERY badly.

Thank goodness for the dogs, and hopefully they will be a little more "on guard" now so they can alert you if the bear comes back--- which hopefully he WON'T.

 

[Sixstardanes]

Ever so glad things turned out well.

I can so relate to being upset by a situation like that.

We live in the mountains so yeah there is wildlife here.

Here'a a lil story of my bear encounter from 2002. (Pre saber)

Phoenix & Baron (2 of our Great Danes then) were in the yard and started barking.

Baron was giving an 'alarm' bark.

I went outside to see what he was barking at and to throw some trash away and I looked up at our concrete stairs that head down towards our fenced in yard & house.

On our stairs I saw two fluffy silhouettes in the half light from the light on our tree at the top of the stairs by the road..

On occassion we get stray dogs.. the looked about the size of fluffy malamutes.

Then I looked behind them.

Bears!

Momma bear was there standing at the top stair beside her was a cub and coming down the stairs were two other cubs.

Mom looked to be over 3 ft tall at the shoulder.

I immediately ushered the dogs in the house shutting the door behind us in a hurry and tell my hubby to look out the window.

He sees them too.

They stay there for about a minute and then wander off down the road.

Its a good thing my hubby got home when he did as it was only about 20 minutes later that they showed up.

Luckily we have yet to see any more like that - once was definately enough.

 

[Connie P]

I wholeheartedly think I would have a LARGE accident in my pants if I saw a bear anywhere near my farm.

Gosh Laura - your life sure is eventful these days LOL. I am so happy this bear let itself be known before something horrible happened at your place.

Laura - the horse you are trying to remember was named MUNDY!! I will never forget her- EVER! and I believe they named her filly Miracle if I am not mistaken.

 

[Laura]

I wholeheartedly think I would have a LARGE accident in my pants if I saw a bear anywhere near my farm.

Gosh Laura - your life sure is eventful these days LOL. I am so happy this bear let itself be known before something horrible happened at your place.

Laura - the horse you are trying to remember was named MUNDY!! I will never forget her- EVER!

[SIZE=12pt]You're right Connie! That was her name, poor sweet girl

The general consensus on this guy seems to be that he was a young adult/teenager and was just roaming, so hopefully he got the bear scare of his young life and won't come back![/SIZE]