Wild bears -

Your neighbors in the country

If wild bears are known to live in the area where you have your rustic home, you will need to take steps to ensure your safety.

Keep your food inside and your garbage in a shed or garage. Rinse your barbecue grill after using and if you clean fish outside, dispose of the remains - don't leave refuse lying around to attract the wildlife.

If a bear wanders onto your property, you can scare it away by banging pots and pans loudly - from a safe place. If that doesn't work, make sure everyone is inside and call your wildlife officer or the police.

Here's a great little video clip from our friends at Log Home Directory.

If you encounter a bear in the woods, chances are it will run away from you. If it doesn't, don't turn and run. That signals to the bear that you are prey. Instead, make yourself as big as you can, back up slowly while talking in a low, loud voice. Avoid making eye contact.

If a bear is protecting its food or its cubs, it may charge at you. If this happens, continue the same tactics, but be more aggressive by shouting and waving your arms. Almost all charges are bluff charges.

This is exactly what happened to my son in the Yukon. He and a friend came across a grizzly unexpectedly. They threw down their back packs and started to back up slowly. My son pulled out his machete and made himself as big as he could, and talked in a firm voice. The bear charged, and then abruptly stopped, turned, and lumbered away.

If you are in bear country and you are going to be walking or hiking in the woods, walk in groups, sing or talk loudly, and carry bells so the wild bears can hear you from a long way away. You can also carry bear spray for emergencies.

An uninvited visitor

One late spring day when we arrived at the lodge, I went to put something into the shed. The door was ajar, which was odd, but not too surprising because the latch on the door was not secure. Upon opening the door further I was shocked to see that the garbage pails were on their sides, one was partly crushed, garbage was strewn about and many other items in the shed were out of place.

Here's what we found:

This is what the shed normally looks like:

All signs pointed to a visit by one or more bears. Specifically, a dog food can had teeth punctures, the edges of one of the garbage pail lids was chewed, and the way things were knocked about, it could only have been done by a large animal.

We quickly ruled out the possibility that it was coyotes and thought it was unlikely that a cougar (we do have both in our area). We don’t think a feline would have made such large sweeping actions to move things like the large oak rocking chair, a very heavy case containing a bocce ball set, or the strollers that were lying on the floor. The remains of elk ribs that were in the garbage were well gnawed and strewn about. Those ribs were likely enough to entice a bear to search for the origin of that scent… and just maybe to get a little angry when there was next to nothing left to satisfy his hunger!

The bear also helped himself to a tin can of fat drippings that was below the barbeque. That tin was also gnawed and crushed. But at least the bear didn't upset or damage the barbecue itself!

Before leaving the lodge that weekend we adjusted the door jamb so the shed door shut properly. So unless there's a bear with opposable thumbs, he or she is not likely to get in again.

Although our neighbors on both sides have seen wild bears, we've never actually seen one on our property. This experience underlined the importance of taking steps to dispose of food waste safely.

The long sleep

Wild bears hibernate in the winter. They go dormant in the fall and don't wake up again until the spring. During that time their heart rate and metabolism slows and core temperature can fall to 37 - 41 degrees F (3 - 5 degrees C). When spring comes, the warmth of the thawing earth rouses them...and they're very hungry and thirsty after their long sleep.