A bear encounter under such conditions would be a pretty good test of a friendship.
The real advice was to travel in groups, keep your distance from any bear you see, not surprise a bear that hasn’t noticed you, and “identify yourself” as a human to any bear that notices you by standing still, talking calmly and waving your arms. I’ve seen exactly one bear in the wild, when I was hiking in Glacier National Park, and my approach was to quietly turn around and skedaddle in the opposite direction. That worked for me.
If you are considering whether to put a swimming pool in your backyard, as part of the process you undoubtedly receive a lot of legal disclosures about the risks involved in installing any kind of pool. I find myself wondering, however, whether you receive warnings about . . . bears.
I thought of this important question after seeing a news story about how a home security camera caught a bear going for a dip in a backyard pool in Monrovia, California. You can see the article and the video here. In the video, the bear climbs over a rear wall, tumbles to the ground, sniffs around the pool, then decides to take a lap and cool off before exiting the premises the way he came in.
I thought the video was unusual until I did a search for bears in pools, and found that there are a lot of YouTube videos and stories about incidents in which bears decided to take a swim in a pool. The videos show bear swims across the country, in California, Tennessee, Florida, and even New Jersey (where the bears probably have a Jersey accent). The bears aren’t picky about their swimming venues, either: they’ll gladly splash around in In-ground or above-ground pools. They don’t even mind a belly-flop, as shown in the picture above.
The homeowner who posted the video of the bear climbing his back wall for a swim took it in good humor, saying there was “never a dull moment” in his household. I wonder, however, how enjoyable it will be lounging in that pretty little pool in the future, knowing all the while that at any moment a bear could climb the wall and dive in. It’s hard to really relax when you are on bear alert and have to keep one eye open for a visit from a furry friend.
South Lake Tahoe, California is, by all accounts, a beautiful community on the shores of bucolic Lake Tahoe, on the state line with Nevada in the Sierra Nevada mountains. You can imagine a happy homeowner sipping from a steaming mug of coffee in the morning, serenely contemplating the coming day in his Tahoe Keys neighborhood as the sunrise gilds the placid surface of the lake . . . when suddenly the peaceful scene is disturbed by the sounds of trash cans rattling and the alarmed homeowner notices that a massive, 500-pound black bear is snuffling around immediately outside the house, looking for a way in.
“Hank the Tank” has decided to drop by for a snack.
And that’s the problem. According to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, Hank is a “severely food-habituated bear,” which “means that the animal has lost its fear of people and is associating people with access to food.” When a bear has lost his fear of people and is perfectly content to break into houses for food, that doesn’t leave many good options. Wildlife officials are trying to trap the bear to stop the break-ins, and in the meantime they, and a local bear protection non-profit organization called the Bear League, are trying to find an animal sanctuary where Hank can be released. If they can’t find him a safe new home, euthanasia is the only other option.
It appears that the bear’s visits may be a bit of a self-inflicted wound for the Tahoe Keys area that has been Hank’s favorite destination. The neighborhood bans the use of “bear boxes”–free-standing garbage can enclosures that are supposed to be bear-resistant–because they are “unsightly.” The Bear League says that Hank goes to Tahoe Keys because he gets rewarded with garbage in unsecured garages. If there is any positive in this unfortunate situation, it may be that Hank’s visits have caused the homeowners’ association to change the policy and allow “bear boxes,” which may allow this scenario to be avoided in the future.
As between “bear boxes”–“unsightly” though they might be–and a live, 500-pound bear that has lost its fear of people, I’d go with a “bear box” every time.
Montana is bear country, with a hardy population of grizzlies and black bears roaming through the wilderness. Signs at trail heads remind you of the risk that you might encounter a bear. The risk was made manifest a few days before we arrived, when an experienced outdoorsman on a mountain bike literally ran headlong into a grizzly after turning a corner on a trail and was fatally mauled.
We don’t want to mess with bears, so we’ve stayed on the popular trails, tried to make a lot of noise to warn the bears away, and kept our eyes open. So far, we’ve had two bear sightings, but no direct interaction — fortunately.
We’ve been trekking through areas of the Pisgah National Forest, enjoying some beautiful streams and waterfalls, cool air and chirping birds. So far, we haven’t seen one of the other natural wonders of this area — bears.
The Asheville area is black bear country, and the Pisgah National Forest is where they live. It’s one of those areas that is wilderness — in the sense that no houses are in sight — but it’s regularly visited by campers, hikers, anglers, birders, and tourist who drive down the Blue Ridge Parkway. Bears often see humans, and are known to prowl suburban neighborhoods at night, rooting through garbage and looking for food. The bears are accustomed to people and have lost their fear of them. That’s not a good thing, because an emboldened bear is more likely to charge — and we don’t want that.
The trail heads here feature posted warnings about bears that seem ironically hilarious to me. Don’t approach a bear? Give a bear in the distance wide berth? Hey, thanks for those useful tips! But some people are idiots, and expect any bears they see to be like animals in a petting zoo. They’ll approach them and even try to feed them and take a selfie while doing so. I’m not sure that posting notices will penetrate the cluelessness of such people — but you’ve got to try something, I suppose.
On our hikes I’ve tried to stay alert for signs of bears. If I see one, I’ll gladly turn and head carefully in the opposite direction.
Today’s story about exotic animals who were set free from a privately owned farm near Zanesville, Ohio and then had to be shot by Muskingum County sheriff’s deputies is horrific on many levels.
For those who aren’t familiar with this awful story, a man named Terry Thompson kept dozens of exotic animals on his farm near Zanesville — about 50 miles from here. His stock included male and female lions, Bengal tigers, grizzly bears, black bears, mountain lions, wolves, and a baboon and a monkey. Last night, Thompson apparently unlocked all of the animal pens, cut wires that restrained the animals, and then shot and killed himself. The animals escaped into the surrounding area, terrorizing nearby neighborhoods, and had to be hunted down and killed by sheriff’s deputies. It’s terrible that so many innocent, magnificent creatures had to be killed — but public safety had to take priority, and you don’t mess around with grizzlies or Bengal tigers.
Now that the danger has passed, it’s time to ask questions. Ohio’s laws governing private ownership of exotic animals are apparently very liberal. Why? Even if allowing people to own or breed certain animals should be permitted under certain circumstances, isn’t it an obvious risk to public safety to have one man keep dozens of dangerous animals? What was done to make sure that Thompson was qualified to serve as a proper caretaker and that the animals were being kept with appropriate security? It’s mind-boggling to think that Thompson was allowed to keep more than 50 non-native, wild animals. It’s even more mind-boggling that, under Ohio law, the only thing between those creatures and the people of the surrounding countryside was the rationality of one man who thought it was reasonable to keep more than 50 dangerous creatures on his property in the first place.
For those who aren’t familiar with this awful story, 
Webner House 