Saturday, June 5, 2021

A Backyard Bear

So this young bear cub seems to have split off from his/her sibling and Mama Bear.

The bottom of the plastic dome is at about 5' to give you an idea of the size of the cub.

The cub learned how to take the rope tie off from the hook and lower the dome and the feeder beneath it. 

You can see his frustration that there is no longer a feeder as I removed it.

Here he was a couple of weeks ago with a successful lower and grab.

I'd hope that removing the feeder, would encourage him to wander elsewhere.
 
But on May 31st he came to the back yard about 12:30pm and tore down a suet feeder.

It was filled with a hot pepper suet cake - thus the tongue out reaction.

Though he still ate a goodly portion of the suet cake.

So now there is nothing at the edge of the yard, and the birdfeeders are, I hope, protected by a motion-detector that strays water for 30 seconds.  I want this cub to stay wild and not to become acclimated to humans.

5 comments:

Robin in Virginia said...

OH my goodness! Other than what looks like a scratch on his hind quarters, he looks very healthy. Awesome pictures, Beth.

Darlene S said...

Good for you to do all you can to keep that bear wild and not habituate it. He seems to be trying to take the easy way out for his meals. I like your pepper suet trick. Stay safe!

Samplings from Spring Creek said...

Yikes! Scary he is frequently coming so close to you home.

Gabi said...

Great pictures.
Very exciting.

Barb said...

Very interesting! It is so important to keep these critters wild!