Back Yard Bears

The American Black Bear is a pretty foxy animal. After coming out of hibernation they are hungry and a good chance the female will be with cubs/cub. Mom will be on the prowl for easy pickings and many times, it will be your back yard feeder for the birds you were feeding all winter.

Try as I may to out fox these creatures at my home in Willow N.Y in the heart of the Catskill Mountains (which I sold in the end of 2008 ) I had a never ending battle with the Black Bear and it seemed it was always the winner.

Below is one adventure I had been having with this fine looking Sow and her two cubs as they arrived from their den for the upcoming summer.

The result trying to beat this fantastic animal is to just stop feeding the birds for the summer. It will end the visits and make your yard a lot safer as you will see in some of the photos I will post and just how brazen the Black Bear will become with humans. Play it safe, as the DEC would say and be a good neighbear and do not feed the bears.

SO here, you can see in photos just how this event unfolds with the bear the winner as always. The feeder is in an Oak about 30 feet up and the rope to it is tied to a hook on the garage. Sounds good so far, right? I watched from behind the garage corner as Mom looked over the situation and had it figured in no time at all. I moved around to the back of my house and to the front where I had a good view of the entire adventure. The two cubs sat at a bar-way into the pasture and just waited.

So, follow these photos and see just how things went as Mom started up that oak and to the rope that held the feeder.

After getting to the feeder she grabs the rope in one paw and pulls it in to her body.

She than places the rope in her mouth and gives one great yank of her head and pulls the rope and hook out of the garage. The two cubs were by now at the bottom of about where the feeder would fall and down it came.