Community Manager

Question

Bear with me!

Forum|Forum|4 years ago
July 7, 2021
9 replies
18185 views

I live on the outskirts of Asheville, NC, on the US East coast. Regularly during the summer and fall, we receive the visit of black bears. They live in the surrounding mountains and freely roam around the neighborhoods, looking to see if there is anything interesting in our trash, or just hang out…

This one was doing just that as I was working on the porch… Thought I’d share with the Community!

(view in My Videos)

Life At PTC

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StephenW

23-Emerald III

Nature is awesome! And sometimes a little scary!

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Leigh

5-Regular Member

So...inquiring minds would like to know Olivier.....what was between you and that bear......(besides your phone)? 😁

Great video!

olivierlp

Author

Community Manager

Well, some trees for few minutes (portion of the video I cut). Then nothing. behind me, close, but a fence with a gate, in case I had to make a hasty retreat... But this bear was alone, no cubs, pretty chilled.

While I am at it... My daughter and I observed a mama and 3 cubs at the same place, in Nov 2013. The kiddo wanted to cubs, cuz... they are cute! She stayed safely near me and we got a cool movie 😀

Olivier

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Jaime_Lee

Community Manager

His cousin has been wandering around my small New England town 😉 On our community Facebook page, everyone is posting their sightings of this guy!

Glad he hasn't arrived behind my house yet because Maple gets very curious and tries to make friends with all the pets or wildlife on my street. Hence, the trauma of removing porcupine quills from her face.

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StephenW

23-Emerald III

No bears here in Houston. We have had a lot of rain lately and sometimes these guys move out of the swampier areas. This one was in the park near my house, right next to the road.

We were driving thru and both me and the wife said...wait, was that what we thought it was?!? Had to make a u-turn to grab a couple of pictures. It was probably ~6-7 ft long.

olivierlp

Author

Community Manager

Wow! for some reason, a croc feels more threatening / sneaky than a bear. I did not know they were in that area. One more reason to be weary of floods where you are...

Olivier

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StephenW

23-Emerald III

Hahaha, there are a ton of alligators in the area. There is a good chance they are in any body of water of any size.

But they really don't want anything to do with humans.

kdirth

21-Topaz I

Normally nothing like that here in eastern Iowa, though we do occasionally get a wayward bear or mountain lion. The most plentiful large wild animal here is the deer. Always have to be watchful for those who wish to jump out in front of my truck intent on causing damage.

There is always more to learn.

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Leigh

5-Regular Member

Let me introduce my local neighborhood wildlife..... 😁

avillanueva

23-Emerald I

Most likely bears smelled you a long ways off. Keep your distance as they can charge very quickly. Especially with cubs in tow.

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TomU

23-Emerald IV

No bears around here but plenty of other wildlife. A friend of mine saw this on her way home last night. She said, "Clearly country folks are always kind… even to strangers!"

olivierlp

Author

Community Manager

Ahaha! Nice one!

Olivier

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BettinaGiemsa

5-Regular Member

Wildlife here in Germany is a little bit less spectacular, but still beautiful!

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ElsaH

5-Regular Member

This is great! Any more recent bear sightings?

olivierlp

Author

Community Manager

Yes, several recent bear sightings in my neighborhood, but not captured on camera, unfortunately...

Olivier

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VladimirN

24-Ruby III

Only once in the wild nature have I come face to face with a brown bear. It was in the summer of 2009. The three of us went to travel beyond the Arctic Circle. The weather in that August month for this region was very warm and without rain, during the day in the sun it was 68°F (and so, an ordinary summer is a temperature of 54°F and rains all day long). Somewhere on the 3rd day of our trip, in the evening, we made a bonfire near the camp and sat down to have supper. After some time, a brown bear came out to us. He stopped 25 meters away from us and stood looking at us. We, in turn of, also silently looked at him, without moving. I had a camera with me, but I didn't even think to get it out, so as not to provoke the bear with my movements. This lasted for about 5 minutes in total, after which he ran in the opposite direction from us, closer to the forest. I remember most of all how he was absolutely calm when he first walked towards us, and then looked at us. Only the next day, I returned to the place where we met the bear and took photographs of its tracks left on the sand. This is my story. Below you can find some pictures from that trip (the soundtrack here will be: https://bit.ly/30S4zpl ).