I guess hibernation is over.....

[CodeSection]

A day ago there was a doe giving birth in our backyard in CO. Later that night a fairly large coyote came sniffing around. Then tonight this is what our Ring camera caught outside our walkout basement....

https://ring.com/share/6822502734499172520

 

[mongoose33]

You should have offered the bear a Hamms......

 

[CodeSection]

You should have offered the bear a Hamms......

LOL, it will be back along with its friends all Summer/Fall. I was surprised how large it was at this time of the year after hibernation.

When I'm up in CO we generally take the dogs out around 12:00AM-1:30AM. When we take out the dogs to do their thing, we light up the area as best as we can; attach leashes on all four dogs; carry a strong flashlight; and carry bear spray. Well to be transparent, I carry another tool as well.

I have never really encountered a bear face-to-face before and I hope these bears are not totally acclimated to humans. The closest I came to a bear was decades ago on a search and rescue mission where a helicopter dropped three of us off on a mountain top covered in snow. We literally walked about 20 yards before we found fresh bear tracks and then fresh steamy bear dung! I suspect the helicopter noise scared it away and luckily we never encountered it.

 

[BruceH]

That bear is walking fairly nonchalant, I'd be concerned. It also looks well fed, almost like someone in the neighborhood is sharing food with it?

My freak out factor would go to a 4.5 after seeing that.

 

[CodeSection]

That bear is walking fairly nonchalant, I'd be concerned. It also looks well fed, almost like someone in the neighborhood is sharing food with it?

My freak out factor would go to a 4.5 after seeing that.

This is our second spring at the CO location which is in a sorta mountainous area. The bears are beautiful majestic animals and we see many of them with our cameras. No one walks outside around the neighborhood after dark.

The real threat are mountain lions both where we live in CO and in AZ. Even if there was an encounter with a bear or mountain lion, I believe with four dogs and at least one adult, there would be enough distractions/threats that a bear or mountain lion would be confused thus giving time for us to retreat if needed.

This bear was huge. I guess it could be possible that a neighbor is feeding them, but our area has so many of them that I doubt it. Many neighbors have berries and crab apple trees. We have some berry bushes as well.