BEARS STARTING TO INVADE RESIDENTIAL AREAS IN VALLEY EAST

 Posted by Karlene McCandless on August 13, 2014

Tagged bear quietly enjoying a late night snack off Jeanne D'arc in Hanmer.


Robert T. Kirwan The good thing about the trails around the Howard Armstrong Recreation Centre and other high traffic areas is that there are so many dogs walking around during the day with their owners that the bears wouldn't dare try to hide in that area during the day. They are most likely just using the trails and the streets as paths that they follow on their route.

Valerie Kirwan As awful as these pictures are, and as dangerous a situation this can be if a human were to walk around the corner, I do have to wonder why the blue box was so easily accessible to the bear :(

Melanie Leblanc-Levac Thats nothing supposedly theirs a bobcat or lynx hanging around Dugas street. My neighbour took pictures.

Ingrid Podschun Kennedy I live on Dugas and my dog was barking at something in our yard. I couldn't see anything, but she smelled something. I don't have garbages out. Hopefully it wasn't the bear or bobcat.

Melanie Leblanc-Levac I think I saw something bigger then cat last night. And theres no dogs not tied usually in our neighbourhood. Im pretty sure it was the linx/bobcat. It went on east street

Tanya Marie Brody McCaffrey

Karlene McCandless These pics were taken around 1:30am on Leger Cres...the bear was going from house to house to see what was available. It was kind of amazing to see, because it was calm as a cucumber just eating away, and then got up and headed over to my neighbors. Even my dogs just sat in the window watching her.

Jennie Lynch Butt OMG thats on someones patio thats too close for comfort!

Darlene Ranger A little close for comfort...

Karlene McCandless I was only nervous when she finished eating and took a look inside. We had our dogs in our hands ready to make a run for the front door if we needed to! She was happy just to have had a snack, and

Micheline Jacques-Richer Plastic containers, jars, cans , meat foam plates need to be rinsed & cleaned out before throwing in blue box
Even crumbs from pizza boxes :) yummy !

Shannon Allen Might I suggest scaring the bears away when they come in to our yards, rather than quietly watching and photographing them? We are teaching them that neighbourhood garbage is a safe and efficient way to eat, instead of being scary, risky behaviour. Bang on pots and pans, yell at them, spray them with a hose. Teach them this is not a fun place to be!

Karlene McCandless Shannon I'll give you call next time he's in my yard and you are free to come and spray the bear. It was practically on my patio door. NO chance in a million years I was opening that door.

Robert T. Kirwan A couple of years ago we stood in our backyard making all kinds of noise to try to scare away a bear and it just looked up from our feeders as if we were nothing more than a bumble bee causing a commotion. Even the police officer standing beside us didn't phase him. It couldn't be bothered with us until the MNR employee arrived with his colourful orange or yellow vest. As soon as the bear saw the vest it got up and took off like a shot. I guess it had an experience with the MNR or hunters in the past.

One year I even remember throwing a bag of hockey pucks, one at a time at a bear in our back yard. It would walk away a bit and then when I stopped throwing the pucks it would wander back and continue doing what it wanted. I felt so stupid tossing hockey pucks at this huge bear, but he didn't seem to be bothered much. And this was all during daylight hours.

We realized one year that we were on the bear's route, so we put everything away and actually left our gate open so the bear didn't have to break it down to get through our lot. It is amazing how these large, lumbering animals can walk through a flower garden and not break a single plant. They are so clumsy looking, but they are also so agile.

One year I was working in the back yard, clearing out some old hedges when I looked up from what I was doing and saw a bear peeking at me from behind our back shed. It was like he was waiting patiently for me to finish up what I was doing so the could check out our bird feeders. I can still feel my heart in my throat as I looked up and twenty feet away was this big, black, hairy face with both eyes staring at me. It was the weirdest thing. The bear was watching the "human being at work" much the same as we watch them.

Line Vezina Renaud Two years ago we had a bear in our yard and when my husband opened the door and yelled at it to make him go away, it started walking his way. It stopped only a few feet from our door. My husband is not scared of a lot of things but I`m sure he didn't like that situation. Those animals are big and "wild" you never know what they can do.

Karlene McCandless Very well said Robert! It was incredibly calming watching this large clumsy animal, just chilling on the deck, eating with such grace. It was honestly the oddest thing,

Shannon Allen I apologize if suggesting to try to scare them away is considered such an offensive thing. Enjoy them then.

Robert T. Kirwan It's just that many of them don't scare easily.

Shannon Allen True, but worth a try in my opinion. I'd rather try to be part of the solution than part of the problem. But I've learned people don't always feel the same way as me. :)

Ingrid Podschun Kennedy Two years ago my dog barked at something in the back yard (always alerting us of intrusions). When I turned on the back yard lighting, here was a large bear sitting in my pond. My husband opened the back door and the bear slowly stepped out of the pond and walked to the end of yard and into the creek behind our home. They are not scared off easily.

Robert T. Kirwan I think everything you have suggested is right on, Shannon. Believe me, when I see a bear in my yard, I do everything I can to scare it away. But despite my fear of these massive beasts, and my annoyance that this problem is getting worse since the bear hunt has been affected, I am still in awe of the majesty and grace that such a huge animal can display. It is not their fault that they have less food to eat because of overpopulation and residential development, so in a way it is sad that they are being victimized by human beings. But this is how I feel when I see a moose that has been killed, or a rabbit that has been shot, or even a partridge that has been blown apart with a shotgun. I don't even like killing spiders. So, if you find that people don't always feel the same way as you, then there are at least two of us in that club.

Dan Rainville Welcome to Northern Ontario. We are the ones encroaching on the wildlife, not the other way around. That's what happens when you develop and develop our green belt. The bears don't bother me. I embrace them, and laugh at all the city folk that want to buy a house in the outskirts, but don't want to deal with wildlife. If you don't like it, move out of the Valley.

Robert T. Kirwan They get bears in some parts of Sudbury too, so it is simply a matter of adjusting to the situation during certain times of the year. We need to make sure that we don't make our property attractive to the bears and they will leave us alone. They are just looking for food, not trouble.

Jesse Brooks i saw a bear on jean d'arc st while ago and i yelled 'hey bear!'. it was damn scared and ran like a bat out of hell. guess im just ugly lol.

Linda Marden Bertrand Pictures of my backyard from the bear last night. I understand that leaving garbage out will attract them, but now I can't even have apple trees in my backyard. Something needs to be done with these nuisance bears before someone gets hurt.

 Val Lemieux Thats not good !!

Kate Chalk Oh my! That's awful Linda!

Shannon Allen If people would make tons of noise and scare them away when they come to feed on their garbage, instead of watching them and taking pictures of them, maybe we could have apple trees.

Amber Appleby ...that was the aftermath of a bear...it doesn't seem like she was watching the bear.

Amber Appleby Got'cha...didn't see that post :)

Valerie Kirwan I know....taking bird feeders in at night, or not feeding birds doesn't stop them from coming into our yards. We never had this problem years ago. Just too many bears. If it happened in Toronto, the problem would be dealt with quickly.

Amber Appleby Bear season opens tomorrow :D

Monique Lemieux Vandeligt I worry abt that too. I have fruit trees, they were there when we bought the property. They are messy trees because of the leaves, the fruits falling, etc but they give us shade. We had bear problems a few years ago, my neighbour has fruit trees too and when the Ministry came to set a bear trap (which was a joke - the bear was smart enough not to go in there even though they had put food) told my neighbour to cut down her trees. Well, what a response. Her tree was there too when they purchased the property and provided privacy. If only they would admit that they made mistakes when they cancelled the Spring bear hunt (which they say has been brought back with very strict rules) and would let the bears eat at the dumping sites like they used too, we wouldn't have so many problems.

Linda Marden Bertrand I have another apple tree that has apples on it currently. Now I don't know if I should pick them all or leave them on. The Bear Wise person told me that it might be better to leave them on so that the

Robert T. Kirwan This is definitely devastating to see the damage to your trees and I feel sorry for the loss of those beautiful fruit trees, but it is also unbelievable that the bears will take down the trees to get their fruit, but not touch any of the plants or other decorations in the garden. They are so huge, but so careful.

Tania Charsley Beaudry where abouts is your street, I have crab apple trees to,,,, and we have already had one bear eating our garbage, Pinecrest Sub-division

Karlene McCandless Amber, Shannon was referring to my post above, where the bear was about 1ft away from my patio door. I apparently should have opened the door and sprayed it with water, instead of just leaving it be.

Shannon Allen Karlene, you could have tried to make noise from inside your house to try to scare it away. Have a nice day.

Amber Appleby Ya, I definitely wouldn't have opened my door. Just for the simple fact that if that bear had cubs around, it wouldn't be cowering away.

Linda Marden Bertrand I'm on Jeanne D'Arc Street and Leger Crescent.

Chantal Lafontaine-LeBlanc Oh wow!! That's just awefull Linda...

Roger Gauthier Shoot them

Darlene Ranger Sorry to hear this.. These animals do not know where to go... I know how scary this is and really what can we do...We can only do what we can do..There is no real answer...

Amy Lavoie-Ducharme They are after all.... animals

Christine Maurice Four years ago, we cut down our wonderful, fifteen year-old, fruit-bearing apple trees. The bears loved them and scared me so much that I really wasn't comfortable in my own back yard, which is right in Val Caron.

 
 
 
 

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