This doesn't happen often

In broad daylight! (sorry no pictures*)

Bear down by our summer kitchen. Good sized one. Certainly weighing much more than me and I'm 100 kilos. Had already gotten down the suet holder but hadn't taken it ten feet away and this type opens easliy so undamaged. But I'll have to replace the hook it hung from before next winter. Well I guess that brings the bird feeding season to a close because bringing the feeder in at night doesn't help when they come by day.

I grabbed up a stick to wave and yelled. I'm not crazy; standing on the kitchen steps I would have ducked back inside the door if the bear had charged instead of slowly backing off. Usually a black bear will back off from a yelling human but last night the governor of Vermont had four going for his feeders and one of them did not back off so he had to make a quick dash for inside.


* I would have gone for the camera instead of worrying about saving the bird feeder but we use it so rarely it was bound to be flat. I'm charging it now in case our visitor comes back. I don't think the bear has gone far but no, I am not about to walk into the woods to try to get you a picture.

There was a short film on the BBC last week from the States of a really large bear which had wandered into a garden looking for food . Knowing nothing about the subject I was relieved that the authorities had tranquillized it and released it back into the wild rather than killing it.

But it's like the joke about an 800# gorilla.

Wherever a grown bear chooses to go is the wild. They don't have any natural enemies except when we humans choose to be that. And by and large a bear that has begun coming into built up areas in search of food is going to end up being killed. You didn't say what state this was. But in some of our northeastern states there isn't any wild more than a couple hours amble for a bear to reach houses. So once they learn "goodies to be had there" it's usually curtains, even if they initially make a rewilding attempt or two with this individual bear (almost certainly now collared for future identification).

Now those of us who choose to live out in the woods, most of us, do not call the wildlife folks to report "there's a bear in my garden". If it becomes a problem, we try putting up an electric fence which will prevent casual bear intrusion. Won't deter them if they are sure that through that fence lies something they really want like a bee hive. Beekeepers have to have the fence up first, before the hives, becuase once they know the hives are there a mere electric shock won't stop them.

It was California - a 500lb male black bear who was first spotted asleep in a back garden, and then wandered about looking for food. You're right, Mike, the team who tranquillized him tagged him first before taking him back to the mountains.

Well yes, plenty of room in California to take a bear far out into the wild. But Califronia is more like a fair sized country than a state.