The bear was back this morning so I called dispatch to ask for a game warden. When I didn’t hear back from someone quickly enough (I admit to being impatient about a bear in my yard this morning) I called the warden in Princeton.
“I have a nuisance bear.” He laughed. Seems a lot of us are dealing with them. He told me it’s the end of the mating season. I thought that was back in May. During mating season bears wander much more than usual. There’s no rhyme or reason to their path or how often they return, if they do return. We talked a few minutes and agreed we’d talk again this afternoon.
“Keep the rifle handy and do what you have to do.” It’s ready. The phone rang two or three minutes later, the warden again. If there’s a bear hunter available in the area could he send him out to run the bear? It’s training season for bear dogs. Absolutely! That was three and a half hours ago and I haven’t seen him yet. He might have been busy elsewhere and will show up later, or he might not be able to come until tomorrow.
A second warden called a couple of hours ago. Jan, he said your chicken sounds like a fox, not a bear. The bear would eat the whole thing. A fox will have its fill and not eat bones if it’s satisfied. This warden feels the bear is “not a big deal.” I stood 100′ from a bear that has a 5″ wide foot print. It kinda is a big deal! He told me what to do with the trash, the grill and the bird feeders (knew all that) and emphasized that it’s not a big deal.
“It’s not a big deal but keep a rifle with you.” So when it becomes a big deal do I get out the cannon?
Filed under: Maine | Tagged: black bear, Maine wildlife
Oh my! Sounds like how the bucks behave around here during the rut—not afraid of a darn thing.
I can’t imagine having something higher up the food chain living in my area. I hope you are free of him/her very soon. One way or another.
Hey Robin,
Finally had a minute to visit your blog – it’s great! Things have really changed at your place in the last few years! Just as busy as ever I see
We never had a bear problem until this year. A young male stopped in the night and wiped out all my Mom’s bird feeders and about 15 lbs of seed. We tracked him in the mud the next morning for quite a ways. Thankfully he hasn’t been back but we kept the feeders in for a couple of months.
Do you still have Maggie? I hope she’s doing fine as well as your other dogs. I lost Banjo last month to bone cancer. He was 9. It’s like burying a piece of your soul. I’ll never get over losing him. I was looking at Maggie’s photo – they looked so much alike. I miss him more that I could have imagined.
We have a great ES that’s 2 but I know someday I’ll get another farmcollie although I’ll never replace Banjo.
I hope you are all well – drop me a note if you ever have a minute. Say hello to Steve & the girls for me.
Debi
Tylerfarm
Gosh, you guys have all the fun . . . snort. I’m trying to imagine getting through chores with a gun close at hand. Ugh.
My husband found your website while searching on how to handle our bear problem. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the notion that someone else out there is dealing with same poor behavior we are. My recent facebook status was, “Elaina, bare-assed and bare-foot, encountered black bear at 3 am. Mosquito bites tell her, perhaps pants would have been prudent.”
We are trying out a battery powered burglar alarm on the chicken coop. So far, it’s done a good job of annoying me when I have to bring food out.
We also have a “critter gitter” on order, but I think our bear is still very timid- unlike yours.
You should show the warden my post about the bears killing chickens… they do NOT always eat it all. These ones killed every chicken in the coop, piled them outside in the snow, and came back over three days to feed on them.
See: http://howlingduckranch.wordpress.com/2009/01/07/needless-suffering/
The photo will show you what bears do to chickens (and these were grizzlies).
cheers,
HDR
Just returned from trip to Aspen, Co. Our hostess who lives in a very posh $$$ house on a hill overlooking the ski slopes, had a 5′x5′ mat of nails laid in front of her doors. It looked like something some religious nut would have slept on. When I asked what it was for she told me that it was a bear deterrent. A bear had broken into her house 3x in a month and trashed her kitchen. She had a stainless steel Subzero fridge with pretty messed up doors where the bear had opened it and cleaned out the contents! Colorado has a ‘three strikes you’re out’ policy on bears. She would not call them because they would shoot the bear and she couldn’t deal with that. Ya. Okay. No bear while we stayed there, but I didn’t sleep very soundly! Guess I”ll stay in my little shack in the woods in Maine. Tamer.