Da Bears

Kathy and I have been visiting the Asheville, NC, area since 2012, and in that span of time, we have seen many bears. That changed, at least for me, when we bought our retirement home here at the end of 2021. Kathy continued to see lots of bears, especially on or near our property, but I missed them.

It was a bit frustrating. I saw evidence that the bears existed: an overturned trashcan here, a collapsed chain link fence there, a destroyed bird feeder over yonder, but I didn’t see the bears. Consider this typical day from the summer of 2022. Like most couples, we paid movers to haul a bunch of stuff to our new home that we subsequently threw out or donated. My summer included near-daily trips to the dump or trips to the Habitat for Humanity Restore. One day, returning from the dump, Kathy rushed out to tell me that I had just missed a big old bear strolling down our street. “It couldn’t have been more than three minutes ago!” Three minutes late!

Or consider testimony from our next door neighbor, Justine: “Did you see that bear that just went down the street? That was absolutely the BIGGEST bear I have ever seen!” Kathy saw it, but I missed it.

I know there are lots of bears in the Asheville area. A biologist with the NC Wildlife Resources Commission was quoted earlier this year as placing the Asheville area bear population at around 8,000. This is up from fewer than 1,000 bears in the 1970s, thanks to a management plan that went into effect in 1981. Surely some of these bears must visit our home, but I never see them.

Last Christmas, my eldest gave us a Garde Pro animal camera. It took me awhile to mount it: the instruction book was quite thick, and to be honest, it intimidated me. But eventually I got around to reading the instructions and mounting the camera. The mounting strap that came with the camera was fairly short. The only tree small enough to accommodate the short strap was a dogwood in the side yard. We kept the camera there for a good bit, but unfortunately, we didn’t see any animals, other than bats. One night a bear came on our front porch and destroyed another bird feeder, but this was all out of range of the camera. That convinced me to buy a longer strap.

I relocated the camera to a massive tree in our front yard, with the camera pointed at the front steps and front porch of the house. For several days we checked the camera only to see the nocturnal antics of neighborhood cats and raccoons. Then, one day, there it was: a relatively young bear climbing onto our front porch, looking for the birdseed that we take in every evening. That video is here.

As you can see, the bear spends a bit longer than a minute on the porch. He goes to the railing at the end of the porch, and stands on his hind legs as he surveys his domain. Finding no birdseed, he eventually leaves, after taking a bite out of a leaf on our small key lime tree.

Well, that was most certainly exciting, but it didn’t qualify as “George sees a bear”. Still, I had a sense that my encounter with a bear could not be too far distant in the future.

I came to within eight minutes of seeing a bear stroll through our front yard. The video of that is here.

You can hear Lucy going absolutely nuts in the house as the bear intrudes on her property. I believe that someone must have been on the street when this occurred, as I can hear clapping, in an attempt (I think) to scare the bear off. The next video on the camera was of Kathy and me returning home from dinner, some eight minutes after the bear came through. On that video you can hear Lucy still barking at the long-gone bear.

So I was getting closer and closer to a real live bear encounter, but as the old saying goes, close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades. When would I see a bear on or near our property in real time?

The answer was “very soon”. Part of my morning procedure is to retrieve the SD card from the animal camera to see the animals that visited us the night before. I was doing that very recently when I heard a snort. I looked over to the vacant lot next to our house and saw two bears: a cub, and her mother. I called for Kathy, and she joined me. She said, “You know, mama bears are pretty protective of their cubs, and they can move very quickly over short distances. That mama bear isn’t very far away.” I replied, “I know, but I’m okay. I only have to outrun you, not the bear.”

Sometimes I worry about Kathy’s sense of humor.

So that is it. After nearly a year in the house, I have seen a real live bear up close and in person. I still check the animal camera daily, but the thrill and anticipation are now somehow different. I have seen da bears. It is all downhill from there.