there be critters here!
 

There I was, about 20 min ago, sitting at my desk, thinking about my porsche, when out the side of my left eye, I saw three black bumps, like a big fat lab and her pups, running across the front yard:

I looked out the window to my right and there stood a ma bear on her hind legs, looking back at me, no more than 3 feet outside the window. I grabbed the camera, and started shooting. Unfortunately the flash was on and they took off, ma bear running the cubs up a tree.


http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1211417756.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1211417678.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1211417808.jpg


http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1211418009.jpg

fortunately, my Porsche was spared...................

jd

Very cool pics. Are you out in the "sticks" or in a suburban development? All I have to worry about is rattlers...yikes!

thats cool....but scary if you were outside!

I could have patted mom on the head; the cubs were cute little boogers.
I'm at the back of a small sub-division, no house within 400yds. My place is on ~14 acres of woods in the mountains, some of it very vertical. Perfect for critters.
People hunt for bears in the area. Got turkey, fox, bobcat, eagle, deer, and a few porsches.

True...especially if you were caught between Mama Bear and Baby Bear... :eek:

Our pet brown bear showed up on the kitchen-door porch awhile ago, wanting more bird-feeder food. I thought it was the UPS guy and opened the door. Poor kid scuttled up the nearest tree, fast enough to put the lie to the old advice, "If a bear chases you, just climb a tree."

you should have seen those two cubs scoot up that tree!

Those are NOT "critters". Critters are the things those things eat...like you and me in the wrong situation. Those are called predators....REAL predators.

Naa,
Here they're critters; folks used to wrassle with them...........
Bear meat's good; a little gamey..........

Gamey? Never thought of it that way. Here's my favorite part of the bear:

http://www.citybagelbakery.com/images/Bear_Claw-sm.jpg

Question: What kind of bear is best?

It's good that the flash scared them - you don't want them to think of your house as a food source. Be sure not to leave any dog or cat food outside or anything else they might want to eat. Keep doors closed.

Black bears are not real aggressive (black bears can be brown in color - see the NY post above). They are omnivores and eat a lot of ant nests, grubs, etc. You definitely do not want to be caught in between a sow and her cubs. Dogs and bears will go at it even if neither has never seen a dog or a bear before. There is an instinctual reaction to the smell. Don't let your dog stay out at night in the yard or in a pen.

Grizzlies - aka Brown Bears - can be extremely aggressive - esp. "teenagers" and will kill and eat humans once in a while. Usually, they just maul the human - something that would just "teach a little lesson" to another bear - however, humans are not -- shall we say -- as sturdily built as bears and the little love slaps and controlled bites usually kill a human. When I taught Mammalogy classes, I used to hold up a bear skull and then hold up a Sherman tank model -- same design criteria.

Bear - human encounters often end in death for the bear. They are best encouraged to stay in the woods.

LOL.
http://www.blogebrity.com/images/dwight-schrute.jpg

That's a ridiculous question.

What part of NC are you from? My Dad lives in Brevard and I was born in Hendersonville. Maybe we could meet up and compare cars. Ill be in the area Memorial day. Sunday Thru Wednesday. The names Jake PM me if your interested. Thanks

thats so freakin cool!!!

:D
So just out of curiosity, how long were the cubs up in the tree?

LOL "What can Brown do TO you?"

This is exactly why you ALWAYS go hiking with a fat friend that has bad knees.
You don't need to outrun the bear(s). :)

I saw a spider yesterday........

I saw some lobbyists.

Now that's scary. Don't feed the lobbyists!

Very cool pics John.

We miss you over at shadetree by the way, planning has begun for Nov on the Dragon.

I had one wandering around my house in Sylva, I never saw it but the neighbor below me warned me a few times they had seen it in the neighborhood.

The little ones are soooo cute!!

I hear Porsche's aren't good for eatin...

cubs............
 

they were not in the tree long. Long enough for mom to ck out for danger, then down they shimmied, and of into the mt laurel they went. I figgured they spent the night about 50-100 yds from the house.
jd

You climb trees for grzizly bears. Black bears can climb, but they're not man eaters like grizzlies. Black bears are not dangerous as long as Momma doesn't think you're threatening her cubs and they don't get too familiar with you. With black bears you just make noise and stay away from the cubs.

While generally true, you gloss over the fact that Momma Bear may interpret you standing still in the vicinity to be threatening the young'uns.

It would be like a 914 getting in a wreck with a Suburban with teeth

The little ones look cute! You should go out and try and play with them!

Yeah, I saw a show on bear encounters once. According to the folks in the show, what you should do varies. Under some circumstances you'd want to leave, under other circumstances, playing dead is good and sometimes trying to be loud and scary is good.