How to know if you have bears visiting?

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A friend of mine is concerned that she may be getting a visit from a bear at night. It is more noisy than the deer and she doesn't think it is a person. What sort of droppings do they have? I think I know what bear tracks look like but it it pretty grassy behind her pond and it may be difficult to find them. It has been very dry in this area up until this past weekend and she thinks it may be coming to her pond for water. Any tips would be appreciated.

-- Colleen (pyramidgreatdanes@erols.com), November 26, 2001

Answers

Sorry for the double posting. I got an error message that they couldn't post so I resent it.

-- Colleen (pyramidgreatdanes@erols.com), November 26, 2001.

Check for claw marks in the peanut butter. Bears eat all kind of stuff so their droppings should be fairly sizeable and fairly stinky.

-- Gailann Schrader (gtschrader@aol.com), November 26, 2001.

Black bear droppings are very similar to human, but are usually full of seeds as well. Footprints are "dog like" but much larger in size.

-- Annie Miller in SE OH (annie@1st.net), November 26, 2001.

Didn't I hear somewhere that bear droppings are large, black, and full of bells? (It's a joke - campers are told to wear bells to "warn off" approaching bears!) HEE HEE!

-- Soni (thomkilroy@hotmail.com), November 26, 2001.

The droppings are large and sloppy.

Good clues of a bear visit- the bee hives are trashed.
The fruit trees are stripped of all fruit and the braches are mangled badly.
Your garbage is all over the yard.
The freezer on your back porch has been pushed around or turned over in an effort to get into it.

-- Rebekah (daniel1@itss.net), November 26, 2001.



Colleen:

We live in Anchorage, AK and have black bear and brown bear roaming our residential areas and at our remote cabin for food during the winter; mostly garbage and pet food, and even a pet now and then. I also work for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and am a certified Bear Guard and Bear Shooter and have quite a bit of knowledge about bears. When bears are rooting around houses for food, they usually "woof" and "grunt"; and, most of the time you can hear them panting and/or wheezing. What we do to see "what that noise is" at our remote cabin is turn a 1,000,000 candle power spot light on "the noise". It's usually a black bear and they momentarily freeze and look into the light before they take off into the pucker brush. Sounds like your critter may be getting "easy" water from your pond and "easier" food from your garbage. Even up here, bears will normally stay away from houses with dogs outside them. But, if hungry enough, nothing will stop them from looking for food or from eating found food. Best thing is to "bear proof" your house and yard. Your local wildlife folks should be able to give you help on that. Just remember...bears are unpredictable, quicker than a heart beat, should never be trusted or second guessed; and one should always consider them dangerous. Any questions, drop me an E-Mail. Good luck.

-- Roger Pettitt (rogerpettitt@hotmail.com), November 26, 2001.


COLLEEN...I ALWAYS HEAR OTHER HUNTERS SAY THAT YOU WILL SMELL THE BEAR BEFORE YOU SEE IT.SO I GUESS THEY HAVE A HORENDOUS STRONG ODOUR.PLACE SOME TRIP WIRES WITH CANS AND BECAUSE THEY ARE TRYING TO SNEAK IN.THE NOISE THEY MAKE WILL TURN THEM AWAY.ALSO CONSIDER MOTION DETECTOR LIGHTS.PLUS POUR SOME AMMONIA ON THE GARBAGE.I`M NOT SURE IF WIND CHIMES WOULD DETER THEM.

CORDWOODGUY

-- CORDWOODGUY (cordwoodguy@n2teaching.com), November 27, 2001.


jeeze........it's just a bear (maybe) they're scared of humans usually, I'd climb up on the roof and spend some time watching it and enjoying the fact that you at least have some WILDLIFE. If it becomes a bad problem a bullet in the head will cure it. Bear is quite yummy.....although the ones I shoot are from way far north and mainly eat blueberries NEVER garbage...cause we're at least a 100 miles from the nearest town. Really you should enjoy the experience

-- Tracy Neal (tdneal@telusplanet.net), December 02, 2001.

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