Our First Bear

[Jeb48]

We have lived next to the Cherokee National Park Bear reserve for 11 months now and just saw our first bear today, just before lunch. It apparently was checking out the flower bed on the end of the house, when my wife came home and spooked it. I was sitting in the living room and heard the driveway alarm but before my wife could get the rest of the way up the drive I heard something big coming on the front deck. I look up to see a black blur go buy the front windows. I look out the bedroom window to see a bear sitting on the far end of the porch. I go out the back door and told my wife to stay in the car and went back in and grabbed my camera to take some shots out the window. About that time I heard it go over the porch railing and down probably 12-14 feet. I went out on the deck and got a couple of pictures. Then remembered I had moved the trail cam to the side of the house the day before because something was digging in the flower bed (turned out to be a raccoon). So I pulled the card and this was one of the better pictures I got.

Not a huge bear, probably around 100lbs.

 

Edited July 23, 2020 by Jeb48
changed picture to a link

[MacGyver]

Neat!

[KahrMan]

Very cool!

[Sidecarist]

Nice pic! Double check to see what was attracting him/her. If they get it in their mind to get something to eat they can be awfully destructive. 

 

[jpx2rk]

Cool picture.  Hope it doesn't do any damage to your house, etc.

[peejman]

We have friends who live just into the hills.  They have bears periodically come check out stuff at their house.  Once you get past the "neat" factor, they can quickly become a nuisance if they start getting into stuff.  My wife showed me hilarious cell phone video of the wife out on their deck at dusk trying to shoo away a bear that was showing interest in their trash cans. 

Edited May 31, 2016 by peejman

[Jeb48]

15 hours ago, Sidecarist said:

Nice pic! Double check to see what was attracting him/her. If they get it in their mind to get something to eat they can be awfully destructive. 

 

Just a flower bed on that end of the house. Garbage is stored inside in the basement on the other end of the house, till I haul it to the drop off station. A friend that saw the pictures things it is a yearling just turned loose to figure out where to find food and was doing a walkabout. We will certainly keep an eye out but most of the neighbors say that bears in general aren't a problem in this area as long as you don't leave anything out for them to eat. According to the neighbors they see them a few times a year.

[Jeb48]

9 hours ago, peejman said:

We have friends who live just into the hills.  They have bears periodically come check out stuff at their house.  Once you get past the "neat" factor, they can quickly become a nuisance if they start getting into stuff.  My wife showed me hilarious cell phone video of the wife out on their deck at dusk trying to shoo away a bear that was showing interest in their trash cans. 

Don't think my wife will be doing any shooing of bears. She said she will be looking around more when she is out working in the flower beds. She had been working right below where the bear jumped off the deck the day before.

[RED333]

23 hours ago, Jeb48 said:

Not a huge bear, probably around 100lbs.

Big enough to hurt ya bad, good reason to carry around the house.  I do for coyotes all the time.

 

[Grand Torino]

I'm glad they are around your house instead on mine. All kidding aside...cool picture.