Bears

I know we have talked about bears before, but I couldn't find a thread
dedicated to them. So here goes.

Some Central Ontario cottagers have pests that are bigger than mosquitos or ants,
as related in this newspaper item:

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Cottagers almost blasé as black bears become ever more resourceful in their quest for food

Jun 16, 2009 04:30 AM
Comments on this story (30)
Trish Crawford
Living Reporter

When it comes to bear tales, it's hard to top Mike Chonko.

A bear ate his truck.

After breaking into the truck's cab in the summer of 2004, a bear cub fought, clawed,
chewed and busted his way out the back window, leaving more than $10,000 worth of
damage in his wake.

"It was a Chevy bear trap," laments Chonko, who was alerted to the intruder by the
honking of the Silverado's horn. "You have no idea the power of a small bear."

All of the cottagers on Kennisis Lake know this tale – it is told around fires late at
night – and it is stories about bears, not ghosts, that keep the little ones awake at
night and give cottagers bragging rights.

Bears in cars, bears in the garbage, bears on the deck, bears strolling by the hot tub,
bears up trees and down on the dock.

And they're not made-up tales.

Ursus Americanus, the North American black bear, is as ubiquitous in cottage country
as blue- berries and canoes. Although bears usually dine on nuts, berries and plant
shoots in the wild, their phenomenal sense of smell has drawn them into the trash
bags and picnic baskets of humans for the easy pickings. And, because of their poor
eyesight, they can sometimes get perilously close to people before they know it – causing
shock for both sides.

Gino Ariano thinks his wife might have picked up something tasty from Tim Hortons on
the way to the cottage, four years ago, because a bear tried to get into her red Mercedes
as it was parked overnight beside their Haliburton cottage.

The bear had actually got the car door open – it has a handle that pulls out – when someone
in the cottage heard rustling in the dead of night and went out for a look.

"We all panicked," Ariano says. "We managed to scare him away. Now, we lock the cars at
night."

There was no food in the car, just the smell, he says, but it was enough to entice a hungry
bear.

At Ontario.ca/bearwise, the Ministry of Natural Resources Bear Wise website, you'll find tips
such as making noise so they can avoid you, freezing meat and food scraps, keeping your
barbecue burning after you've finished cooking to eradicate food smells, and using round
door handles and doors that pull out, not push in. A prime one: Don't leave your garbage out.

In spite of these precautions, the bears still come visiting.

Ministry officials say cottage country is becoming more densely populated with people living
there year-round. They put blue boxes, filled with stinky pizza boxes and tuna tins, out on
the deck and cook on gas barbecues, sending tantalizing smells into the nearby forests.

Bill Wiggins had just taken some burgers off the barbecue when a bear came out of the forest,
climbed a tree, walked over the roof, climbed back down another tree and stuck his paw on
the still-hot grill.

"We've always had lots of bears," he says nonchalantly of his Haliburton cottage.

But there was reason to worry the day his wife Vivian took her lunch down to the water's edge
and a bear cub "sniffed her knee."

Wiggins says the valiant Vivian got her camera and took a picture of the 75-pounder. The
photo hangs in a place of pride in their cottage.

John Cunerty wondered why his brother-in-law, Justin Anis, was insistently whispering his
name from out on the deck one afternoon. When Cunerty finally looked out the window,
he spied a 400-pound black bear strolling by Anis, who was trapped in the hot tub with the
bear between him and the cottage.

"I had all sorts of things going through my head," Anis recalls. "I didn't think I could get out
of the hot tub quickly. I tried not to freak out."

The bear wandered away after a few sniffs.

Cunerty says it used to be you'd see one or two bears a year near his Haliburton cottage
but now the average is seven or eight. Once, while taking the garbage to the dump, he
came across a bear rummaging for food. He says the bear didn't look that big when it was
down on all fours. Then she reared up.

"I set a land speed record getting to my car."

To scare away bears, Wilf McOstrich keeps a supply of firecrackers in a watertight jar beside
his cottage door. He also has an air horn.

"If you clap your hands together and yell, they just continue with what they are doing,"
he explains.

It was only after he bought his cottage 40 years ago that McOstrich found out there was
a bear cave next door. He has seen so many bears over the years, he's not worried.

"To tell you the truth, I think they are scared stiff of people."

The MNR reports the bear population is constant at about 100,000. Eliminating the spring
bear hunt – so that mothers weren't killed, leaving orphan cubs who couldn't fend for
themselves – has still resulted in the same number of bears (6,000) being culled each
year with just the fall hunt, says Martyn Obbard, research scientist with the ministry.

This year, there have been 2,244 reported bear incidents – where bears are causing a
problem for humans – down 200 from last year at this time. However, the numbers in
Sudbury and Sault Ste. Marie are up, possibly because the late spring means the bears'
natural food supply is lacking.

Bears are "highly intelligent and very curious," Obbard says. He once heard of a bear
that jumped on the roof of a Volkswagen Beetle, popping open its doors, to get to the
food inside.

McOstrich isn't surprised. There were two bears in his area, dubbed Bonnie and Clyde,
who tore a chest freezer from its chain under a cottage deck and roll it down a rocky
incline until it broke open.

"When last seen, the two bandits were feasting on the freezer contents."

Brian McElwain was enjoying a cup of coffee when he spied a 200-pound black bear
outside his Muskoka kitchen window.

"He was just a big teenager, looking around and sniffing. He was probably looking for
black raspberries."

McElwain wasn't so calm another day on his way to Toronto when he noticed a large wooden
garbage container overturned at the end of the road.

Thinking "darned teenagers," he got out to pick up the mess when he found a bear
rummaging in the pile of goodies.

He scooted back into the car and a little while later called his neighbour to warn him. It wasn't
unnecessary, McElwain remembers. "The bear was on my neighbour's deck, looking in the
window."

Bill Jennings recalls the time kids were coming up the cottage path while a bear was at his
back door. Jennings tried barking like a dog, but when that didn't work he decided he
needed bigger ammunition.

"I assumed the SWAT position, turned the corner and he was 2 feet from the end of the rifle.
We stared at each other for what seemed like minutes but was only a few seconds. I couldn't
get back to the door and I thought I should hit it somewhere sensitive, maybe in the eye.

"But then I thought of all the Muskoka cottagers talking about the one-eyed bear. So, I hit
him in the nose, and then he was shaking his head and romping off into the woods."

Even for blasé cottagers, a one-eyed bear would certainly be something to talk about.
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_________________

"The monkeys are throwing stuff at me again."
-Survivorman in Costa Rica

Those stories of the bear in the cars reminds Me of the Tums commercial.....lol Laughing

Great article...Thanks Bushrat Cool

Great post Bushrat Cool

The last week there have been lots of Cougar encounters here on Vancouver Island.
2 Dogs have been killed so far.

_________________
A Knifeless Man is a Lifeless Man
Canadian To The Core
Carry Less by Knowing More
Knowledge Weighs Nothing

	Drummer Dave wrote:
	Great post Bushrat The last week there have been lots of Cougar encounters here on Vancouver Island. 2 Dogs have been killed so far.

I've heard about those. Just a few minutes ago I watched a story on the news about a B.C. woman who pulled her toddler from the paws of a cougar. They had been walking on a trail in the woods behind their suburban home when the cat attacked. It was hunted down and killed. The little girl is remarkably fine except for some stitches. They think these attacks are by cougars from the same family.

_________________

"The monkeys are throwing stuff at me again."
-Survivorman in Costa Rica

My own experience with bears is very limited, but includes a memorable encounter
in northern Ontario a few years - okay, quite a few years - ago.
I was in a rental cabin on a remote lake. It had a wooden back door with no window
in it and no storm door. I was inside in the early afternoon when I heard something
knock over the garbage can outside the door.
I thought "Boy, the racoons up here are real bold, coming around in broad daylight."
I opened the door to investigate. (One more thing about the door: it opened inwards.)
I don't remember what phrases came out of my
mouth; it's just as well. A young bear - bigger than a cub, but not full grown - had
knocked over the garbage can and was rummaging with his head inside it. He had
laid the can on its side, and had it braced against the door. There was one problem:
I had opened the door. So now as the bear tried to push himself further into
the can with his rear feet, the can
was being pushed over the door sill into the cabin. I somehow managed to push the
can back far enough with the door so that i could get the door shut and latched again.
The bear then gave up on that can and decided to check out the garbage cans of the
other cabins. I grabbed my camera and followed him. He showed no interest in me,
but I made sure that I had potential escape routes. After a few minutes, the owner of
the cabins dog became aware of the situation and chased off the bear.

Here's a picture of the little bugger:

_________________

"The monkeys are throwing stuff at me again."
-Survivorman in Costa Rica

What a cutie.... Cool

How 'bout that.

That's a little too close for comfort for me. Shocked

_________________
Using dial-up is like riding a tricycle at Indy.

yeah me too. Exclamation

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About fifteen years ago, my wife and I made our first trip together to Algonquin. We went canoeing up the lake where a small stream dumped in, which I wanted to check out for fish. So we made to land just beside the stream. We were only about ten feet from shore when two bear cubs popped up out of the long grass ... so we stopped. Then mom popped up from behind a bush, right behind them.

I can tell you, we back-paddled with greater speed and skill than I ever have since ... that's the closest I've ever been to a bear, and although I've read that black bears with cubs aren't dangerous in the way grizzlies with cubs are, that mother bear followed us a few hundred feet down the shore.

But I haven't had a bear encounter while camping since. In four or five straight years of Algonquin I haven't even seen one. This year it's Killarney, maybe my luck will change.

I once worked with someone who went camping in Algonquin Park. Early the first morning he heard a noise outside the tent. He stuck his head out and saw a bear checking out his fire pit. The guy said he went back inside the tent and stayed silent until well after the bear was gone.
A friend of mine used to canoe and camp in Killarney a lot and never saw a bear. But this year there have been an lot bear sightings/encounters all throughout central/northern Ontario. So be prepared, Andrew.

_________________

"The monkeys are throwing stuff at me again."
-Survivorman in Costa Rica

On vacation we were in bear country most of the time. We hiked a 4 mile trail through known bear area. Always make HUMAN noise, bells don't work. The thing that scares the bear away is the human element. Make sure to make noise while going around corners, or in dense thicket. Bear spray is also a good idea...

_________________
-Till shade is gone, till water is gone, into the Shadow with teeth bared, screaming defiance with the last breath, to spit in Sightblinder's eye on the Last Day.

-Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and proclaiming, "Wow, what a ride!!!"

	Survivor Kid 909 wrote:
	On vacation we were in bear country most of the time. We hiked a 4 mile trail through known bear area. Always make HUMAN noise, bells don't work. The thing that scares the bear away is the human element. Make sure to make noise while going around corners, or in dense thicket. Bear spray is also a good idea...

One my one trip a few years ago to grizzly country, that's what I did: clapping my hands, talking loud, etc., when entering areas where I couldn't see far.

_________________

"The monkeys are throwing stuff at me again."
-Survivorman in Costa Rica

I got a real kick out of this story because I have been in the bake shop
in Tobermory many times over the years. It's actually been some time
now since I was last in Tobermory, at the northern tip of the Bruce Peninsula,
but it seems the bakery still knows how to draw those with a sweet tooth.
I have hiked my entire life in the northern Bruce, and have never seen
a bear, though I have seen signs of them. They are very shy and elusive,
but they can't resist fresh baked goods. Laughing

Bear found munching on cookies in Ont. bakery Provided by: The Canadian
Press, Pets Editorial Team
TOBERMORY, Ont. - The owner of a bakery in Tobermory, Ont., has had a few
sleepless nights after a black bear broke into the shop.
The bruin was first discovered last Friday enjoying some cookies as he sat atop a
freezer at the Little Tub Bakery.
The Ministry of Natural Resources set a trap.
The owner of the shop says he woke up early today to loud noises as the bear
got caught in the trap.
Wayne Hadcock says it was hard to get back to sleep because the bear was
banging his body against the cage, trying to escape.
The bear is now in the custody of the Natural Resources Ministry.

_________________

"The monkeys are throwing stuff at me again."
-Survivorman in Costa Rica