This summer someone local spotted a mother bear and two cubs about three miles from my home. The pictures were posted on FB a little while ago. This week, my son saw 3 cubs at the end of our dirt road, and mama bear must have been hiding, because he did NOT see her. He was not able to get any pictures of them. I just hope I do not meet them while out walking my dogs!!!! I thought triplets were unusual for bears, but these cubs were fattened up for winter nicely. The bears in Missouri are black bears. That must be 2 mama bears within a short distance of my house. Also, my horse had a large scratch on her back that might have been from a big cat. We DO have mountain lions here, I have seen them. I put salve on it today, but it is healing good.
I hope you, your family, dogs and horse all stay safe. Hopefully the bears will hibernate soon and then move on.
That is one of the joys of living where I live too. We have bears, cougars, fishers, coyotes and all the regular wild life. I've seen bear tracks and scat on my walk and also a cougar on the next concession. I don't let it stop me from my dog walks! Make sure you read up on what to do in case of an encounter, carry bear spray if you have some, and be aware of your surroundings. I hope your horse is OK!
OMG - don't get me started about BEARS! This year our entire neighbourhood was held hostage by a Mom and two 2 yr old cubs who were not leaving her. The largest of the cubs, a male, was getting fairly aggressive and walking up to people decks in their back yards and he also decided to hang about the school which caused all sorts of alarms and "stay in place" warnings to be issued. Finally a trap was set after a good 6 weeks of hoping they'd all go away. The big male got himself caught which is when his smaller sister got into the act of raiding back yard gardens. Took another few weeks to catch her too. This says NOTHING of the cougar who also decided to scope of the school! This area has bears, wolves, cougars, deer ......
Just read this morning on another site where we all voice neighbourhood concerns that "Green bins" (recycle bins) have been being raided by a bear in the wee hours. Many of the neighbours don't want to report this to Conservation as they don't want the bear trapped and then probably killed. Problem though as I see it is that IF the bear is now that desensitized to people it'll continue to become more and more bold and will continue to approach houses more and more and IF it happens upon a child - not going to be good.
Yes i've heard this before if they can't find food they get bolder, it's really dangerous in a way but also terrible to see them harmed when all they're doing is trying to survive, it's a no win situation.
Hopefully, they can relocate the bears to a more remote area? We have not seen our bears lately, so I hope they have moved on. However, we have way too many coyotes here. Two nights last week, they were in the woods across the road from my house and very close. Another night they were in another neighbor's front yard, and also very close. I don't think it was their "jamboree" night, that is usually around full moon, and several hills away from me when they worship the moon (seemingly). This was more a hunting spree kind of a thing, and very close. I was walking my smaller dogs before bed when I heard them so close, I took them indoors in a hurry, and my two big dogs did not get walks those nights. Thankfully, they did not have a mishap indoors. I have started trying to take them out earlier and hopefully avoid them. I do love living in the country, but sometimes the wildlife gets a bit too close. We have loads of deer here too.
It must be beautiful in the countryside but like you say with the wildlife your on tender hooks and watching and listening but i bet it's glorious with the deer. I've watched Australian programmes with their wild life snakes / lizards / alligators etc i would be a right nervous wreck.
Here we get bears (black bears however this summer a grizzly was spotted on the Island), cougars (lots), wolves, elk, deer. Not really enough swamps for moose but occasionally one will swim over from the Mainland visit for a bit and then swim back. Have an entire world of sea life here too: Killer Whales, seals, sea lions, mink, otters, weasels, raccoons. Here they do try and trap bears and relocate them but often they'll return and/or they find if they put them into another bears territory they'll fight and usually the newbie gets run off. We used to be overrun by released pet rabbits. Honestly it was easy to spot more than you could count on a walk. One evening from a gf's patio I counted over 50 in a small area. Extremely destructive, not particularly afraid so super easy prey. About 2 years ago we have a highly contagious virus go though that killed them off by the thousands (I think City stats are that the Public Works Department pick up 14,000 PLUS on the roads which didn't account for all the ones that died underground or in the forests. Since that time we've had way more difficulties with cougars and bears whose primary diet probably was rabbit. Regularly there is a cougar that hovers around the local school yard requiring all kids to be kept indoors and directly by parents under a "Shelter in Place" rule. I hate that they're ultimately killed but ??? Not worth the life of a child or adult.
