Momma bear and 2 cubs paid a visit today

[GilpinGuy]

A momma and 2 cubs were wandering around the back yard today. My girl came running inside and said, "There's 3 bears outside!!!!" I'm glad she knows to do that.

I love seeing the bears, as long as they aren't tearing shit up.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8e4JYzPP-NU

[OtterbatHellcat]

Holy crap....I had a bear come up onto the porch at a cabin I was staying at in Estes last year....scared the shit outta me. The crappy screen door wouldn't have slowed the young adult down a bit.

I've heard that bears can smell better on land than sharks can in the water...they can tune into an odor over a mile away and walk directly to the location. And tear you a new you know what.

Cool vid, thanks for sharing, and stay safe brother.

[pickenup]

Too bad you didn't get the video of them started, when they were playing on the tramp.

The wife just went out this week and cleaned the bear paw print off of the sliding glass door.
Don't know what he wanted, but he didn't come in.

[Fentonite]

cool video. My MIL has a few that run havoc through their wild space.

[Bailey Guns]

Yeah, that's cool!

[Hummer]

A momma and 2 cubs were wandering around the back yard today. My girl came running inside and said, "There's 3 bears outside!!!!" I'm glad she knows to do that.

I love seeing the bears, as long as they aren't tearing shit up.


It's fun to watch wildlife from home but it might be good to have a chat with your daughter about how to move away from bears without being seen as prey. If she's close to the door running might not be a problem but if she has to go sprinting through the woods.....

We were at a party yesterday with residents from all over the mountain areas west of Boulder and along the Peak to Peak. Everyone is having problems with bears. Bears roaming through yards, climbing on decks and breaking into buildings is a daily occurrence in Gold Hill, Jamestown, and every community where eyes are watching.

The late spring snow of May 23, that dumped 36" of snow also devastated the acorn and berry crop in the mountains. That's putting a lot of pressure on the bear population on both the east and west slope.


On other wildlife notes, we watched a Pine Marten here on Thursday evening, and I spotted a River Otter in the stream by the house about 30 minutes ago--my first sighting of otter this year.

[BladesNBarrels]

...The late spring snow of May 23, that dumped 36" of snow also devastated the acorn and berry crop in the mountains...

Didn't think of Colorado as being a big source of acorns, but:

"Some areas of Colorado have dense populations of our native Quercus gambelii, which many will recognize as scrub oak.
These small-leaved shrubs also offer up tiny perfect acorns.
Timing the harvest of these acorns can be difficult if you don’t have them nearby.
In the Denver/Boulder metro area, where I do the bulk of my foraging, I rely almost exclusively upon finding acorns beneath trees planted as ornamental landscaping.
Last year, I harvested most of my supply from a stand of oaks outside of a Walmart, which elicited some quizzical looks and chuckles from shoppers."
Erica Marciniec, Laughing Coyote Project

Learn something new from this site every day!

[OtterbatHellcat]

As I read through these posts, a great many thoughts cross my mind. Not only because I try to be thoughtful most of the time, and respectful most of the time, (yes I'm an idiot once in a while, who isn't?).... and I'm also a weirdo sometimes, self admittedly.

Bears exist and they live mostly in the mountains and foothills. I do not have an extensive history of run-ins with them, and I'm okay with that. Where I'm heading with this though, is that first, if you live IN the bears territory.....or even if you are living somewhere in a potential outlying area that bears still show up in from time to time........ who the hell says it's okay to kill them? I don't have bear/home foraging statistics on hand, but I do know that PEOPLE are pretty damn careless about a lot of things, including being trashy...that will never change.

Secondly, it is an animal that cannot be "reasoned" with, so it's only doing what it thinks it needs to do to survive. Every time I hear about bear encounters that end up in the euthanizing of the animal, it pisses me off. I know they frequently tranquilize and relocate, but it's the three strike bullshit thing..I think. So if you're still reading this post...lol...let the bears be....ESPECIALLY if you decide to live where THEY do.

That's all I have to say about bears I guess.

[Jeffrey Lebowski]

I know they frequently tranquilize and relocate, but it's the three strike bullshit thing..I think.

Yeah, I think so too.
And I don't mean to single you out, but the stats on relocation are such that chances of survival are quoted as 30-50%.

I'm just thinking about that since a mother and 2 cubs were recently shot on Lookout (Enchanted Forest / Apex) last week. Oh the outrage on Nextdoor.

[OtterbatHellcat]

Low stats on survival for the bear..........and insane survival rates for idiots.

I'm not a math professor by any stretch, but I don't like those numbers.

But if it saves just 1 life.....[facepalm]

[Skip]

So cute, they just wanted to cuddle!

They look healthy too.

[Ah Pook]

Did they get to learn about polygons too? [Coffee]

[MED]

As I read through these posts, a great many thoughts cross my mind. Not only because I try to be thoughtful most of the time, and respectful most of the time, (yes I'm an idiot once in a while, who isn't?).... and I'm also a weirdo sometimes, self admittedly.

Bears exist and they live mostly in the mountains and foothills. I do not have an extensive history of run-ins with them, and I'm okay with that. Where I'm heading with this though, is that first, if you live IN the bears territory.....or even if you are living somewhere in a potential outlying area that bears still show up in from time to time........ who the hell says it's okay to kill them? I don't have bear/home foraging statistics on hand, but I do know that PEOPLE are pretty damn careless about a lot of things, including being trashy...that will never change.

Secondly, it is an animal that cannot be "reasoned" with, so it's only doing what it thinks it needs to do to survive. Every time I hear about bear encounters that end up in the euthanizing of the animal, it pisses me off. I know they frequently tranquilize and relocate, but it's the three strike bullshit thing..I think. So if you're still reading this post...lol...let the bears be....ESPECIALLY if you decide to live where THEY do.

That's all I have to say about bears I guess.

Unfortunately, the only pic I have of bears on my lot is of one hauling ass down my lot after seeing my dog and I...LOL. They are on my lot daily, and I have one section of fence that is regularly knocked down by them, but I rarely see them; sometimes in the spring I'll need to clear animal carcases off my lot that they kill because they are hungry and no food source. For the most part, people that live up where I live don't have issues with them. Every now and then a dumbass or two will move in and need to learn the ropes (they learn or move out in a year or two). I think there is more of a problem in places like Evergreen and Boulder, because those people are trying to live like suburbia and don't know how to handle the wildlife. As far as killing them, they leave me alone and I leave them alone; if there is ever an incident where one of the predators such as bears, mountain lions, or bobcats threatens my family, I'll kill it if it comes to that...certainly isn't my intention though, and I haven't had a close call in ten years of living at my current property. The best deterrent when my kids were little were my GSDs; those things kept all the wildlife away from them.

[OtterbatHellcat]

Nice post....YOU get it.

And I still think there a many folks not in Boulder or Evergreen that expect "Bear No Go" zones.

DOW does have a habit of killing these animals.

I should also apologize to GG for changing the direction of this thread....wasn't my intention.

[GilpinGuy]

Making sure the kids know not to run away screaming is a good idea. I've done that lecture before, but it needs to be repeated over and over.

As far as killing problem bears
Most bears around here are not looking to interact with humans at all. They want food, like all living things, and go for the easiest source of it. Can't blame them I guess. Once they see a human, they usually take off - they aren't interested in eating you or fighting you.

The problems arise for a few reasons.
Easy access to trash. If you don't know this, your head is firmly up your ass.
Some idiots actually feed them. Again, head up ass.
You surprise them. Especially a mom with cubs. The motherly instinct kicks in and they attack to protect their young. Again, can't really blame them here.

I've had bears on my deck many times, one opened my wife's car door and rummaged through it (no damage, luckily) - we now lock our car doors at night, and many, many attempts at breaking into the trash box. Every time, except one, I just had to say "Get out of here!!!" and the bear would take off like a shot.

The one time I got really concerned was recently, and I posted about it. He was stubborn and NOT AFRAID OF ME AT ALL. This is when they are a problem. I have since bought rubber buckshot as a deterrent. The shotgun is loaded with one round of rubber, followed by the serious stuff. The bear gets one chance to get the hint or I get serious.

I don't want to hurt a bear, but if it's threatening me, my family, or destroying my property or birds, he's the bad actor. Not me. I'll do what I can to deter them. Otherwise I have little choice.

[pickenup]

Ok, I have to tell this bear story now.
My son, who grew up here in the mountains, had moved to town. He was visiting and we were having a BBQ on the grill outside. The wife and I were sitting on a bench, my son was sitting in a chair facing us and we were just talking. I looked and told my son, don't panic, but there is a bear right behind you. It was about 10 feet behind him and headed our way. (10 feet is NOT a long way LOL) My son got up to move away from the bear, my wife got up and moved to be able to see the bear, I got up to go get the camera. The bear seeing all this commotion looked at us and probable said, "ahhh the heck with this" turned around and moseyed back up the mountain.

We have always lived under the rules that WE moved into THEIR territory, and as long as they are not physically threatening us, we will get along. We have had LOTS of encounters with bears, like GG have had them on the deck, we had them on the house, nose pressed up against the window looking into the house, in the yard. Watched one out the sliding glass door take down a humming bird feeder. We were no more than 8 feet apart. He saw me, I saw him. We didn't have any problem, "this time" because he didn't chew up the feeder, I just had to put it back together again. So I raised the feeder up a bit, thus my last post about having to clean the paw print off the slider. He couldn't get to it I guess. (didn't get to see that one)

Haven't killed any bears, bobcats, mountain lions, skunks, etc. or even the wild turkeys that have been in my yard. But no guarantees that one of those turkeys ain't gonna end up on the grill some day.