Black Bear Visits Us Today

AKBill

AKBill

En-Route
Joined
Nov 29, 2014
Messages
3,735
Location
Juneau, AK
Display Name
Display name:
AKBill
Had a visit with a 300 lb black bear today. The bear tried to get into our garbage can, thank goodness it is so far bear proof. Heard something batting the garbage can around. Tami and I went outside to see what was going on and a 300 lb bear or so said HI. We scared him and he started to climb a tree. Then decided we were not a threat. I grabbed my mighty Red Rider BB gun and shot him/her in the nose. Great shot if I may say so, anyway the bear jumped and ran off...:)

Anyone else have a funny wild life story?
 
When I was a kid we had an indoor/outdoor cat and his food dish was on our deck outside the kitchen door. I looked outside one day and a family of raccoons were munching on his food. About that time one of the adult raccoons looks at an ant walking in front of him/her and slaps it with his/her paw. He/she then tries to wipe the goo off and pauses at one point, looking at me as if "hey, got any ideas on how to get this off here?"
 
In Denali National Park, at the Kantishna airstrip. I was using the portable outhouse, one of those blue plastic ones, when I heard someone banging on the bear proof trash can. I was thinking the rangers were there to empty it. I am thinking to myself, I am going to scare the crap out of a couple rangers.......

Hee hee heeeee..... I kick open the door and yell, "What's going on out here..!?!?!?" Well, that's what I started to yell anyway....

Two feet away is a VERY surprised grizzly bear, eyes about to pop out, mouth wide open with one paw up and about to hit the lid again....

I slam the door shut, locking the door so the little red "OCCUPIED" sign shows, thinking I will drop into the holding tank if Mr. Grizzly starts clawing the door off....

After 15 minutes I look out the vent, I had to bend it so I could see down, and no bear. I started kicking the door and yelling, hoping that Mr. Grizzly had moved on.

About 10 seconds after I started the noise, I heard my ranger friend yelling, "Hold on, I'll get the ax and break open the lock for you.."

I opened the door to find 2 rangers laughing their butts off...... then very embarrassingly, I told them what happened, which didn't bring any sympathy, just more laughter..... :raspberry:
 
Bear sightings are pretty common around here. Last week a warning went out in the college email to avoid the area around the river where a Rook sporting event had taken place recently, because there was a black bear prowling along the shore. And there were several reports in July or August of a bear banging on trash dumpsters in a neighborhood just north of the main square.

Yet, since moving here two years ago, and even though I spend lots of time hiking in the woods, I've yet to see one with my own eyes. Not that I'm at all hoping to; many years ago I had a very unpleasant close encounter with a determined black bear in the Smokies backcountry that I've no desire to repeat. But that's another story.
 
Bears live in my neighborhood. Chasing them away from garbage cans is pretty common. Bumping into them while walking the dog or coming home from work isn't unusual. Last week an adult blackie was filmed walking across 5th avenue downtown. Hey, they lived here first. I'm much more concerned with close moose encounters, especially this time of year when the adolescent bulls want to fight anything, including guys walking their dogs.
 
When I lived outside of Blue Ridge GA in the mountains we had black bears occasionally snooping around. Once my daughter saw a cub on side of the house and yelled at me "dad there's a cute little bear out here". I immediately yelled at her to get her ass in here! Cubs around, Mama bear close by and will put the hurt on you.
 
Interesting about moose. We have those too, even signs on the interstate warning about them, but I've never heard of a moose attacking a human here. Then again, there isn't exactly a glut of them here, something like 2000 across the state last I heard. I've never seen one either, and know of lifelong residents who have only ever seen maybe one or two.
 
I have never worried about the bears here in Montana, it is the mountain lions that scare the tar outta me. You will never see them coming or hear them or smell them until it is too late.
When we camp and fish in the mountains I always have my pepper spray and a 45 with me just in case.
Another nice bit of info, in most cases a grizzly will just beat you around and chew your buns but you should still live through it. Almost all of the times a black bear attacks will result in you being dead.
 
If I catch a bear in my bee hives, it will get more than a bb to the nose.
 
About 15 years ago, maybe a little longer, a guy was killed by a moose on the front steps of a main building at the University of Alaska, Anchorage, in broad daylight with lots of people milling around. I've had lots of close encounters with bears and moose, and a few with wolves, and definitely the moose are the scary ones.

A couple of bear stories.

My cabin doors swing out specifically because it makes it harder for a bear to knock the doors open. A couple of summers ago my wife went to open the front door and it was blocked. By a bear laying on our front deck. He came up 8 steps and laid down while we were inside doing normal daytime chores with the TV on. He didn't seem to mind the noise. I shooed him off the deck but he wouldn't leave. Dead bear.

20 years ago when my daughter was 7 she was out front pumping water from a hand pumped well about 50' in front of the same deck. The pump squeaked and like any little girl she was singing to the rhythm of the squeak. A black bear, probably attracted by the squeak, walked up and nudged her from behind. My 45# samoyed jumped the bear. Daughter ran into the cabin to get me, scared to death, hands straight up in the air to make herself look big like they teach kids is school here, and awoke me on the couch. Crap, no gun. I went outside and sure enough my dog had the bear treed about 20' from the deck steps. With no gun and being seriously ****ed off I grabbed a 2x4 from a stack I had for a project and took to beating that treed bear with all I had. He moved up the tree so I got a longer board and kept at it. He moved out of reach so I just threw cutoff scraps at him, and my anger was in full bloom at that point. Wife had used the radio to call a neighbor for help. The bear was out of range for me to do any damage, and I had to pee. I unzipped and peed right where I was standing and the most unusual thing happened. The bear started squalling like a baby. Me beating him was little more than a nuisance but when I peed at the base of the tree he was terrified. My neighbor arrived by boat and I went to the bank to grab his anchor. As soon as I moved away from the tree the bear dropped to the ground and ran like his life depended on it, which it did. I came to understand murderous rage that day when that bear threatened my kid.
 
Last edited:
We have black bears here in Massachusetts. The rocket scientists around here think they are cute and leave bird feeders out so they can snap a picture or two while they are raiding or videoing them while talking to them like a dog. A bear not afraid of humans ends up a dead bear eventually or worse, hurts someone.
 
Dispatched a few trash pandas.

Rest of our wildlife is cool, some turtles and frogs in the river, turkey, few deer, little birds, etc
 
AKBill said:
Had a visit with a 300 lb black bear today. The bear tried to get into our garbage can, thank goodness it is so far bear proof. Heard something batting the garbage can around. Tami and I went outside to see what was going on and a 300 lb bear or so said HI. We scared him and he started to climb a tree. Then decided we were not a threat. I grabbed my mighty Red Rider BB gun and shot him/her in the nose. Great shot if I may say so, anyway the bear jumped and ran off...:)

Anyone else have a funny wild life story?
Click to expand...

When I lived off of Valley blvd in Juneau, we had bears in the yard almost daily looking for unlocked trash cans. Waiting until 4AM to put the trash out on trash day (a law in Juneau), just meant there were lots of bears on the street at 0430.
 
An uncle had a black bear hanging around his wilderness cabin. His solution:

-Plastic bag filled with ammonia
-Plastic bag inside burlap sac
-Smear bacon grease on burlap sac
-Hang from cabin's eave.

Bear has to stand up on his hind legs to swat his "treat" down, and gets a face full of ammonia. Never saw the bear again.
 
I was picturing a large man wearing an Indian headdress seated at the coffee table when I read the title.
 
Went back packing in Yoesemite and we had all kinds of bears visit us. Three arrived at dinner time and we chased them off. One arrived in middle of night and I watched in amazement as he tiptoed around camp and sniffed backpacks (everyone else was asleep). Then he left. One managed to steal some food from us at night out of our food cache. He bit into an aerosol right guard deodorant can and did no more!

Best bear defense? Flare gun. It sticks to their fur and scares the **** out of them, burns them a little and they get scared of humans. We didn't have one.
 
Stewartb said:
I unzipped and peed right where I was standing and the most unusual thing happened. The bear started squalling like a baby. Me beating him was little more than a nuisance but when I peed at the base of the tree he was terrified.
Click to expand...

You marked your turf!
 
Yep, and as a result I encourage visitors to pee off the porches. Since the daughter's bear encounter I've always got a bear gun handy (500mag handgun or 18 1/2" 45-70 guide gun) when flying or fishing and I shoot every bear I can legally shoot, which is 100% of black bears that I see. I've come across 6 browns on the creek this summer and truly enjoyed seeing them. I can't shoot those and wouldn't if I could. They don't cause me any trouble.
 
Last edited:
This picture is from the track this past weekend. Yes, he's a bear, but I wish you wouldn't dwell on that, and instead notice his mad style.
s1600_102619650_1294371657.jpg



(thanks VitalMX!)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top