saw my first bear!

[Tedly Nightshade]

Right off my back porch, about 50' away. I saw the first one, quite black in color, without my glasses and had to duck back in for them- went back out and there's a great big brown one, reminded me of a gorilla- dang that thing is all muscle and power! Got a long leisurely look at the beast crashing gently up my creekbed. He saw me too, but seemed unconcerned- I guessed I could go the five feet into the house almost as fast as he could go the fifty feet to me, if he was so minded! I've always admired these magnificent animals, been around them a few times but first time I laid eyes on one! Now if I'm really good maybe I'll get to see a cougar...!

[Gus Lozada]

I saw my first beave....err... nevermind... actually it happened a lot of time ago :D Scary, Ted !

[Magpel]

My own first bear--a small black bear of the kind that has recently been spreading around the Catskills--may or may not have been a bear. I saw in the ditance, crossing the road I was driving. It could have been a dog, but something about that big, round, low-hanging butt said "bear." I'm happy to report that red foxes are all over my neck of the woods now. So are coyotes, but I've [i]never[/i] seen one. Just hear them yipping at night.

[F7sound -]

[quote] I saw in the ditance, crossing the road I was driving. It could have been a dog, but something about that big, round, low-hanging butt said "bear." [/quote]I think it was Sasquatch! Michael Oster [url=http://www.F7sound.com]F7 Sound and Vision[/url]

[Philip OKeefe]

I've been fortunate enough to see a lot of different animals in the wild over the years. Very cool! BTW Ted, a bear can cover a LOT of ground in a very short time if they are so inclined. Don't let their generally lumbering and lethargic facade fool you - you always want to keep a respectful distance from them, and stay downwind if at all possible - their eyes are much worse than their excellent sense of smell.

[Dan South]

[quote]Originally posted by GusTraX: [b]I saw my first beave....err... nevermind... actually it happened a lot of time ago :D [/b][/quote]Whoa! Cool! What's it like? :D ;) I saw my first bear in the wild in February in the parking lot of a restaurant in Big Sur. He was sniffing around between two parked cars, probably looking for food. They can claw their way into a car and leave a heck of a mess when they're done. Never leave food or food refuse in cars when you're in bear country.

[Caevan O’Shite]

Every so many years, we get a black bear wandering down from the hills, more or less through our backyard, and down into the village of Watkins Glen. Always lots of commotion, and later folks compare stories and snapshots. Sadly, one was hit by a car (it must have been a Hell of a thing for the poor driver!) on a busy highway about a half-hour SW of here a couple of years ago. We've had foxes, raccoons, white-tailed deer, bobcats/lynxes, wild turkeys and pheasants and quail and such, and all the usual woodland and urban-crossover critters around for years. There's a sparse and rarely ever seen population of panthers, too. The coyote population here has risen sharply in the past decade, and I've seen a few fairly up-close. Also a number of owls, hawks, and eagles of various kinds, including some Bald Eagles! And, one night, an otter or fisher, in the lake. Lots of woods and marshland and lakes and all around here! I love the wildlife. -k

[Deathtoallwhoopposeme]

Bears are Magnificant animals but i'm still unnerved when I see one in the wild. I recently moved from FL to Alaska and on the way we saw 13 bears through Canada and there are Zillions of them all around where I live, in Eagle River AK. I live on the side of a 5000 ft Peak about 15 miles North of Anchorage and the Bears do tend to come around so i'm told. I haven't seen one around the house yet though i'm told as it starts to get colder we will see them. We have to be really carefull about the Garbage and not to leave anything out and around that may draw them. In another note there was a pretty bad Mauling of a Fisherman on the Kenai this week by a Brown Bear sow. It happens up here. I myself do not go into the woods without Firearms up here. Big Brown bears will try to stay away from you most of the time but as more people venture out it is US that are invading their territory. I rather like to give them space!

[Lee Flier]

I do a lot of backpacking (or I should say, I used to - ever since my current band has been together it seems like I've had no time for much else!), and around here in the north Georgia mountains it's pretty common to see a bear. They're normally shy creatures, the black bears we get around here. They'll raid blackberry patches, garbage cans, or backpackers' food if you're not careful :D , but will usually shy away if they actually see a human or a dog. Brown bears are more aggressive, I used to steer clear of those when backpacking out west!

[Super 8]

[quote]Originally posted by Dan South: [b] Never leave food or food refuse in cars when you're in bear country.[/b][/quote]That's good advice... And may I add, NEVER feed great white sharks by holding little chubbs between your teeth... NOT A GOOD IDEA. :freak: [img]http://www.sharkattacks.com/images4/amosheading22.jpg[/img] Ted, I think your bear sighting is really cool! Be careful. The biggest thing we have around here are deers. I thought they were pretty cool the first time I saw one. I still think they are pretty cool! But bears and sharks are cooler.

[Wrave]

Treasure that sighting Ted. And keep your hands out of it's mouth! :D

[Charlie-brm]

One night at dusk I was driving out of my bush lot and the inside of the windows were fogged up. So I'm fiddling with the wipers and the fan to clear the view and all my headlights are picking up are a bunch of moving reflections from some gray things. I was barely moving and in a few seconds as the windshield clears, I see the grey patches are the dusty pads of three little bear cubs running in the path of the headlights. I'm crawling down the road with three cubs caught in my headlights, running shoulder to shoulder and too confused to get off the road. The one in the middle tried to go left but the one on the outside wasn't budging. A few times one or two would veer out of my path but then they would come back to be in the headlights again. It was really funny, these cubs just yards in front of the car and jostling each other like kids caught out after dark. After a few hundred feet I decided I would have to stop completely because they couldn't figure out what to do and were probably gettting far away from mom. All I could think was: Boy were they going to get it when they got home.

[Biggus]

My dog ( a newfoundland) is often mistaken for a bear :)

[Stratasaurus]

I've been fortunate enough to see many black bears in the wild at pretty close range. I had friend many years ago that was working on her Phd. The subject of the research was basically black bear migrations and seasonal ranges. The business end of the research was basically tracking bears in the mountains and recording their positions on topo maps. She worked very closely with the Park wardens in one of our large national parks. I got to accompany her on many of these outings. Most of the bears in the study were radio collared so finding them usually involved driving around in the truck down forestry roads and trying to triangulate an approximate position and then hiking in to get an exact visual position. These bears were relatively acclimated to humans and got used to having a couple of people following them around. She could and did get uncomfortably close to these bruins. If they got tired of her they would just take off at bear speed or cross a river. One time we were tracking a bear at pretty close range in dense bush across a mountain slope when I tripped and accidently made a BIG noise. I startled this rather large black bear. Who rose up on her hind paws and came down in a bluff charge. She did this 2 or 3 times while making this low woofing sound. I SLOWLY and carefully backed my way out of the area. Very scary for a few moments. :eek: The story unfortunately has a sad ending. All the bears in the study were eventually put down or killed a sad fact of having become too used to humans. (They were already nuisance bears before the study. That's why many of them had radio collars on.)

[Caevan O’Shite]

[quote]Originally posted by Charlie-brm: [b]" ...I decided I would have to stop completely because they couldn't figure out what to do and were probably gettting far away from mom." "All I could think was: Boy were they going to get it when they got home."[/b][/quote]Man, good thing that mom wasn't too close by you, or you might have gotten it! [b]Stratasaurus[/b]- I've heard that "woofing" before, years ago. Walking with a friend through a short patch of woods- really a hedgerow, but an arm-like extension of the woods behind our house- from my neighbors' to our place at night. It made all of the hair on me stand on end! Following was a lot of loud noise like small trees being smashed around, and more "woofs". I looked at my friend, to the longer distance to our place, and the nearness of the house from which we had just come. We unspokenly agreed to return, slowly backing away to the soft circle of flood-lit yard, with no further events to tell of, thankfully! -k

[not coaster MODERATOR]

bears are amazing beasts. i went to a guy's ranch in wyoming who had a stuffed kodiak in his living room. i couldn't get over how huge it was. probably 10 feet tall, 3/4 ton. they can run 30 mph.

[The Bear Jew]

I saw a crackhead dumpster-diving in a 7-11 parking lot a couple of blocks from my house... That's as close to "wildlife foraging in their natural environment" I've seen lately.

[F7sound -]

[quote] I saw a crackhead dumpster-diving in a 7-11 parking lot a couple of blocks from my house... [/quote]Be careful. Like bears, crackheads are also on the "protected" list and should never be approached or disturbed in the wild (or 7-11 parking lots). :mad: Michael Oster [url=http://www.F7sound.com]F7 Sound and Vision[/url]

[The Bear Jew]

[quote]Be careful. Like bears, crackheads are also on the "protected" list and should never be approached or disturbed in the wild (or 7-11 parking lots). [/quote]True dat. And, like bears, crackheads are also known to claw their way into parked cars and leave a terrible mess.

[F7sound -]

[quote] And, like bears, crackheads are also known to claw their way into parked cars and leave a terrible mess. [/quote]Word. :thu: Michael Oster [url=http://www.F7sound.com]F7 Sound and Vision[/url]

[Tedly Nightshade]

Great bear stories! Around here cranksters are more common than crackheads, and more dangerous than bears... That bear looked me right in the eye, knew I was there. I liked that- certainly didn't want to surprise the big guy! I wasn't at all afraid, I was tingling from head to toe with pure delight. My cat Bear was watching from the window sill- he's quite honored to have a magnificent animal like that for a namesake. Fortunately these bears were much more interested in the lush vegetation of the creek bed than in any intriguing smells coming from the house... I'm convinced it is an omen, a major power sign. The benediction of a lifetime, to get to admire such a beast for so long- a few minutes. And don't worry folks I have a healthy respect for it's speed, strength, and skill! What a great feeling, to have something higher on the food chain than yourself. It's a profound relief for me, for whatever reason. I will swear every other element of the forest was transformed by the presence of those beasts- all the birds were talking about it in uncharacteristically respectful terms!

[Caevan O’Shite]

When I was a child, my "cousin" Cecil told me a good story from [i]her[/i] childhood. Now, a little background info, for the proper context... Cecil and her husband, "Doc", lived on a dead-end dirt road. Uphill, across another road, on the opposite end of the road was (and still is) a fire-tower. Lots and lots and still lots more of woods and meadows. They had a hand-pump, the old-style cast-iron lever-action kind, by the kitchen sink, and a bigger one outside. A woodstove heated their home, and a gas stove was a recent renovation for the kitchen, as was a brand spankin' new refridgerator. They were preceded by another woodstove for cooking and an old fashioned ice-box. They had a few wood and metal commodes in the house, and an outhouse in the yard. Doc took pride in the ramp with hand-rails that he had added to it. Years later they installed full indoor plumbing, including hot and cold running water and an indoor bathroom. But their's had always been a beautiful home. They were my "cousins" only in the most tenuous, several-times-removed sense, and considerably older; nearly old enough to be my grandparents. Cecil told me that she had gone to pick berries with her grandpa, as they often had. Her age then would have been about six years old. She wandered further and further around a berry-bush, bucket in hand, and came face to face with a black bear! The bear was rapturously gorging himself on the berries, and paid little notice to her. Wide-eyed, nearly frozen with fright, she backed slowly around the bush and into her grandfather. "Grampa," she said, "there's a bear on the other side a the bush!" Her grandfather smiled and said kindly and reassuringly, "Oh, that's alright, he'll leave us alone just as long as we leave him alone." They continued to pick berries for a while, and when her grandfather finally figured out that there really had been a bear- I honestly can't remember exactly how the rest of the story went, and how he ascertained this- he apologized to little Cecil and said he'd never doubt her word again! But, just as he had said- [i]that[/i] bear, at least- had let them be, and everyone got all the berries they wanted! Years later, early in her marriage to Doc, a bear literally chased Doc up a tree while he had been hunting deer, and kept him there for a good while before snorting at him in disdain and shambling off. Hunting? Yeah, I'm hunting, too! I personally have not [i]seen[/i] any bears in the wild, but as I related in a previous post here, I sure heard a bear one night! Glad I [i]didn't[/i] get to see the bear all up-close and personal-like! -k

[Tedly Nightshade]

great story and well written! Quite enjoyed it. I was very tempted to take a look at the bear scavenging around on my front porch one night last year, but I decided that turning on a light to look at him from a few feet away outside the window might get him interested in the inside of the house... I'd just as soon keep the bears outside! I've known local bears to enter and thrash a house, but one entered a geodesic dome (only a flap for a door) and stole various food items in an absurdly tidy way- he moved some individual eggs around without breaking any, and left the place in very good order. He was seen snacking in a very nearby orchard, that's how they knew who'd been in there, and how he left the door flap... I like bear stories!

[Caevan O’Shite]

He was just lookin' for Goldilocks! -k

[Tedly Nightshade]

funny you say that! the girl who lived there, an accomplice of mine, has five foot long golden dreadlocks, kept that way by a healthy intake of extra virgin organic olive oil. the bear came to the right place!

[Caevan O’Shite]

That's nothing less than beautiful! -k

[Stratasaurus]

More bear stories. In this neck of the woods bears may not be thick as mosquitos, but a common sight. Out in the national parks they are a tourist attraction in their own right. The tourists love to see the cuty, cuddley bears, and the bears love the easy food that the tourists provide. Ultimately this is bad for the bears and when the bears dissappear the tourists and world will be poorer. Anyway tourists seem to forget that these are wild and dangerous animals. So one day my Phd seeking friend is driving along the highway in the park and comes across a collection of cars stopped to the side of the road. As happens somewhat frequently when a bear appears traffic pulls over to admire these beautiful creatures. So my friend pulls over to observe and hopefully identify the bear for her study. (To the familiar eye they are all unique and to her they all had names etc.) As she pulls over to observe the small circus she bears (small pun) witness to one of the strangest and dumbest displays of human behavior. An asian family is busy chasing the bear around the meadow. Mom has a one or two year old child held out at arms length chasing the bear in an apparent attempt to place the child on the back of the bear. Following behind is dad with a camera ready to get the shot of a lifetime. :eek: So my friend leaps from her vehicle and races across the meadow to intercept the family in an attempt to save the bear from the harrassement. At no small risk to her personal safety I might add. She does successfully avert a sure tragedy, but WHAT WERE THEY THINKING.

[Slowly]

We have foxes in our neighborhood, which is a rare sight cause we live in the city. Not as awe-inspiring as a bear but....very very shy creatures. Kcbass

[Caevan O’Shite]

[b]Stratasaurus[/b]- What were [i]they[/i] thinking? What must the [i]bear[/i] have been thinking?!? They are profoundly fortunate that the bear didn't "think" that they were offering yet another exotic handout as bait for a photo-op! What morons!! -k

[KenElevenShadows]

Cool! Never have come across a bear before, just lots of deer. In fact, where I work, we regularly have deer on the mountainsides around back. Seen two or three sets of deer in the last week alone.