More Bear Stories

The photo above was taken from the cab of our pickup truck with my husband’s cell phone camera last week, while he was attempting not-so bravely to scare this ~300-pound she-bear away from our trash bin. Obviously, she wasn’t impressed. The next morning he left for work and found her not 8 feet away, in the drive right next to the house between him and the truck. She ignored him when he waved his arms and told her to leave (using his ‘gruff voice’), so he reached back for the shotgun we keep handy these days and let off some birdshot with appropriately loud bang into the air. She retreated about 10 yards up the hill, then stopped, turned around, growled grumpily and came right on back.

The first time I saw her was just a couple of weeks after our sweet old dog died, leaving us without the good bear-protection barking dogs have always offered. I’d just gotten my first cup of coffee and started out to the back deck when I realized that very large furry thing at the bottom of the deck steps (maybe 15 feet from the door) was NOT a dog, but an escapee from the wildlife sanctuary of the National Forest just across the railroad tracks. Yikes! Now she thinks she owns the place, and has lodged her complaints that we aren’t feeding her well enough.

While this bear is beautiful in her ursine way, she is a dangerous wild animal. We don’t want to kill her, and it would be illegal for us to do so anyway – it’s not bear season. So we’ve called a friend who hunts, some animal control people, a wildlife biologist at a local university, and even talked with a federal game warden about our “nuisance bear” and how to get her to move on. We’ve received some contradictory information.

• We’ve stopped putting out trash, which she loves to shred even though we don’t toss food – I compost kitchen scraps and we don’t eat meat in any case. That means we have to do dumpster runs more often, but that can be accommodated.

• We’ve been warned not to use the shotgun on her even just with rock salt, as it may blind or wound her and turn a bad situation worse.

• We’ve been told to ’sting’ her with a pellet gun instead. It won’t break the skin but will smart and that may at least keep her away from the immediate house and yard.

• We’ve been told she’ll move on when the blackberries ripen, but there are more than enough blackberries here on the property to fatten her up just fine. I doubt she’ll cross the tracks, since once the berries are gone the apples and pears right here will be ripening. She’s counting on it, I’m sure.

• We’ve been told she might be pregnant, and has chosen our place to den-in because it’s safe and abundant. Great.

My family spends a good deal of time outdoors during the summer. It’s one of the reasons we live in these beautiful mountains. I’ve a half-acre garden going, plus the fruit trees and grape orchard, all right in the bear’s path from the ridge to the creek for water. We have friends and family who vacation here, usually camping in the back yard that is now right in the middle of the bear’s twice-a-day wanderings. She’s not bothered by number of people, flying frisbee discs on the course (which is now ‘her’ property), tents, cars, trucks or train maintenance crews. Ice coolers are no impediment to her hunger, and she’s not shy of begging (or demanding) whatever’s cooking on the grill or leftover by the campfire. Something has got to be done.

The bear population is growing rapidly, and those of us who live in the same locations that bears find most hospitable are bound to cross paths occasionally. The Asheville Citizen-Times reports that in my area of WNC bear incidents have “exploded” in recent years from 13 complaints in 1993 to 302 in 2008. And this was in a story about a woman in a nearby town who was injured just yesterday by a mama bear with two cubs who swatted at her little dog. In her own driveway. Yikes again!

Alas, the C-T also reports that wildlife officials won’t trap and release because there’s nowhere to put the bears – we’re saturated. Stay tuned to keep up with developments. She may move on, she may decide to give us some space, we may get a new dog who will convince her to move on, or she may have to be hunted. Meanwhile, we’re moving the company onto the living room floor this season, just to be safer than sorrier.

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