I finally set up the game camera Carole bought me last September. We put it out back near the back porch, at a spot where we occasionally toss out food scraps, bread that’s gone stale, stuff we’ve stared at in the refrigerator off and on for days and finally given up on, and so forth. I’ve always assumed that skunks and raccoons and so forth were responsible for the food disappearing overnight, but it appears I may have been thinking too small.
So, one day we tossed out some old meatloaf. That same evening:
We knew we had the odd bear around; we’ve seen bear tracks after snow, and one time a bear ambled through our back yard in the middle of the afternoon. On that occasion, I went pelting outside, smartphone in hand, to try to take photos, but the poor bear just turned and ran into the woods.
We’re not stupid enough to put food or birdseed or anything like that out when bears are waking from hibernation. Early June is probably safe. In any event, Mr Bear didn’t make any trouble for us. He was so stealthy and quiet, it was like he was bearly there at all.
Enjoyed it, Jay. But I have to confess to not knowing about any special perils presented by bears awaking from hibernation. Anything like a grumpy old man interrupted in mid-snore?
Bears can be pretty violent when they’re hungry. Experts recommend not leaving bird feeders and such out during the time of the year when bears are rousing… they don’t want bears learning that houses=food. Bears that become too familiar often wind up getting shot by animal control officials, leading to the phrase “a fed bear is a dead bear”.