Bears all have different personalities. This big guy (about 600 lb.) is a gentleman through and through. He strolls into the yard upon occasion. It is nice to see him, but I have chores to do so I need to go outside. With this guy all I have to do is open the window and kindly ask him to go. He’ll look up at me, casually get up and slowly lumber into the woods.
Some bears refuse to go, and I have to use more force in my request, shouting and waving works for some. Others need loud noises, firing guns can be required. Now mommas and their little ones are a whole other story. You never ever try to frighten a momma bear away. Those little ones will run up the first tree they see, and momma will stand guard. They can stay up for hours and hours.
A neighbor ran into this problem one night. At about midnight he heard a bear checking out his chicken coop. He fired a shotgun in the air to scare the bear away. He didn’t know it was a mom with cubs. They went right up a tree. He was too tired to stay up till the cubs came down, so he employed a scathingly brilliant idea. He pulled his car up against the door to the coop blocking it from the bear. Unfortunately, it didn’t go to plan.
When he got up the next morning the chickens were everywhere. The bear had climbed up the hood of the car making bear paw dents as she did. She used the car as leverage and pushed the door to the coop in. Her weight crushed the roof of the car popping out all the windows. Bears usually have no interest in the chickens, it’s the food they’re after. She and her cubs licked the trough clean. The most devastating issue with all this was that the chickens never went back in that coop, can you blame them?
May all the bears you encounter be gentlemen.
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