# Black bear in my yard



## Gemma (Aug 22, 2016)

View attachment 31559This is the black bear that I was telling SeaBreeze about in her bear thread.

He laid in our yard underneath a maple tree, watching me paint the side of my house.  After taking his picture, I shooed him out of the sun & back across our stream, up the hill. He hung out all summer long on our property.  I constantly talked to him when I was outdoors, just so he was aware that I knew he presence was there.


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## Gemma (Aug 22, 2016)

View attachment 31560

Another smaller bear cooling off in the stream behind our home.


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## SeaBreeze (Aug 22, 2016)

Wow, great shots Gemma, beautiful bears there!   Looks like you do live in a perfect place for wildlife watching....so cool, nice to have that stream so close, lucky lady!  :cool2:


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## Gemma (Aug 22, 2016)

SeaBreeze said:


> Wow, great shots Gemma, beautiful bears there!   Looks like you do live in a perfect place for wildlife watching....so cool, nice to have that stream so close, lucky lady!  :cool2:


Thank you SeaBreeze!

Yes, we live in a great place for all types of wildlife watching.  We also have red & grey fox, raccoons, mink, least weasels, deer, elk, grouse, turkey, turkey vultures, grey herons, different kinds of ducks, coyotes, numerous song birds...the list goes on.  The stream is used, one way or another,  by all that visit our property.  Lots of rainbow & brook trout in it too.  We sure don't have to travel anywhere else to see wildlife, that's for sure.


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## Carla (Aug 22, 2016)

I wonder what makes them come so close? Great shots though, is it a momma and cub do you think? We had one roaming around this past spring which is highly unusual for this area. We do have deer, fox, rabbit, groundhogs and small critters but never a bear.


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## Gemma (Aug 22, 2016)

Carla said:


> I wonder what makes them come so close? Great shots though, is it a momma and cub do you think? We had one roaming around this past spring which is highly unusual for this area. We do have deer, fox, rabbit, groundhogs and small critters but never a bear.


Thank you Carla! 

Come close?  We own approximately 100 acres of land which border state game lands, which is like a sanctuary for wildlife.  We are rather secluded. So I consider us living in their backyard.  Over the years, we've planted natural foods for the animals...apple, nut and wild cherry trees, berries, grapes, etc.    

All the bears that I took pictures of are boars.  We had one sow years ago with 5 cubs.  She was quite protective over her cubs with all the boars around.  Another sow came through with 2 cubs but didn't stay around too long. 

We do get a break from the bears between June 1 and July 15th when the boars are off looking to mate.  Then, they all slowly come back to put on body fat before hibernation time.


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## RadishRose (Aug 22, 2016)

That looks like a big bear, I didn't think black bears got that large! 

My son and dil live in a residential neighborhood and they had a black bear in their front yard earlier this summer. Scary, since she runs a daycare. The backyard is well-fenced, but still....

You are fortunate, Gemma to see this wildlife and you are so right, you're in their backyard.


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## Ed Mashburn (Aug 22, 2016)

Good evening to all- Yep, we had a couple of bears- one of them quite large- come visit us at our fishcamp over in Florida.  We also live there right next to a large buffer zone-refuge, and that's where the critters come from. I like the thought of having large wild animals close to us, but I do put limits on how close I want them to come. I've already told my wife, when we're out walking and the bear comes too close, I don't have to outrun the bear, I just have to outrun her.
good evening to all- Ed


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## SeaBreeze (Aug 22, 2016)

Sounds like heaven on earth to me Gemma, a good piece of land that borders any natural areas is ideal.   We own 65 acres but it's surrounded by other land owners, we thought about building on it when we were young but never did, now the road to the property is really deteriorated so we rarely go there anymore.  No water like streams on the land either, what you have there is really sweet!  k:


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## Carla (Aug 22, 2016)

When I said "close" I meant to your house. Yes, I know that the females are very protective of their cubs. That's a reference people use when moms are overly protective of their kids "momma bear".


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## Gemma (Aug 22, 2016)

RadishRose said:


> That looks like a big bear, I didn't think black bears got that large!
> 
> My son and dil live in a residential neighborhood and they had a black bear in their front yard earlier this summer. Scary, since she runs a daycare. The backyard is well-fenced, but still....
> 
> You are fortunate, Gemma to see this wildlife and you are so right, you're in their backyard.


Thank you RadishRose.  

It depends on their food source, how big they can grow.  If the apple crop and acorns are plentiful that year, they'll gorge themselves.  We also have wild blackberries and huckleberries galore on our hill, which they love too.  

No, not good to have a bear frequenting any residential property especially when there is a daycare there.  No fence will deter a bear unless it is electrified.  Most folks that raise honey bees have electric fences surrounding their hives so the bears don't get to them.


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## Gemma (Aug 22, 2016)

Ed Mashburn said:


> Good evening to all- Yep, we had a couple of bears- one of them quite large- come visit us at our fishcamp over in Florida.  We also live there right next to a large buffer zone-refuge, and that's where the critters come from. I like the thought of having large wild animals close to us, but I do put limits on how close I want them to come. I've already told my wife, when we're out walking and the bear comes too close, *I don't have to outrun the bear, I just have to outrun her.*
> good evening to all- Ed



haha...I told that to my sister once.  She didn't want to go for a hike with me anymore.


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## Gemma (Aug 22, 2016)

SeaBreeze said:


> Sounds like heaven on earth to me Gemma, a good piece of land that borders any natural areas is ideal.   We own 65 acres but it's surrounded by other land owners, we thought about building on it when we were young but never did, now the road to the property is really deteriorated so we rarely go there anymore.  No water like streams on the land either, what you have there is really sweet!  k:



It is to me SeaBreeze.  I could never go back to living in the city after being here over 40 decades.


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## Gemma (Aug 22, 2016)

Carla said:


> When I said "close" I meant to your house. Yes, I know that the females are very protective of their cubs. That's a reference people use when moms are overly protective of their kids "momma bear".



Yes, I figured that is what you meant.  My one back deck is probably 6 feet off the ground and the bears are always walking by while we are sitting on it towards evening.  I guess seclusion makes them not afraid of coming so close.  They haven't bothered anything around our house, nor gotten into anything.  We do tell company though, to make sure all food content is out of their vehicles when visiting.


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## Ruth n Jersey (Aug 22, 2016)

What a beautiful spot you have. We have a bear in our neighborhood also. I have seen him from time to time over the years. Your bear makes my bear look like a new born. lol


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## Gemma (Aug 22, 2016)

Ruth n Jersey said:


> What a beautiful spot you have. We have a bear in our neighborhood also. I have seen him from time to time over the years. Your bear makes my bear look like a new born. lol


Thank you Ruth n Jersey!  It's neat seeing a bear.  I know people that have lived here all their life and have yet to see a bear.  I find that strange, in a way.  Hope you enjoy seeing yours when you do.


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## Phoenix (Aug 22, 2016)

What wonderful pictures of the bears. It must be terrific to have 100 acres.  When the bear showed up here two years ago, I was afraid for the little children.  We live on 6 acres in a rural area.  I called everyone in the neighborhood, afraid the kids might be in danger.  We then knew what had happened to a number of our wild turkeys.


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## Gemma (Aug 22, 2016)

Thanks Phoenix!  

What happened to your wild turkey?


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## RadishRose (Aug 22, 2016)

Russian Couple Adopted An Orphaned Bear 23 Years Ago, And They Still Live Together


Meet Stepan, a domesticated bear who lives with his humans Svetlana and Yuriy Panteleenko in Moscow, Russia. The Panteleenkos adopted Stepan when he was just a 3-month-old orphaned cub. He was found by hunters in a forest all alone and in a very bad condition, so Svetlana and Yuriy decided to give him a home.

http://worldofanimals.net/russian-c...ar-23-years-ago-and-they-still-live-together/


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## Phoenix (Aug 22, 2016)

The bear ate the wild turkeys.  We saw the turkeys as friends. The bear saw them as food.


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## Gemma (Aug 23, 2016)

Phoenix said:


> The bear ate the wild turkeys.  We saw the turkeys as friends. The bear saw them as food.


You actually saw the bear eating them?  

Turkey will fly away from a bear.  They are too fast for a bear to catch.  Perhaps it just scattered your flock if you didn't see them get eaten.


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## Phoenix (Aug 23, 2016)

My husband has been doing a study on wild turkeys for five years.  All of these were named.  We know their behaviors intimately.  The neighbor's black cows were in the field.  At a distance the bear looked like a cow.  The flocks came back every night and roosted in the oak.  We know it was the bear.  It was not afraid of humans.  This is not good in a rural setting.  The turkeys stopped disappearing that night.  That was because about an hour after we saw it, we heard a  shot and a few minutes later two more shots.  Someone killed the bear.


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