Thread by @gauravsabnis

Friend who lives in suburbia near #OurWawar caught this black bear on his security cam.

Looks similar to the one I encountered face to face last week.

August-September is when they have to eat a lot to prep for hibernation, so that's when a lot of sightings happen.

Bear sightings in the Catskills are at an all time high this year. And in the local press, read about this long time older resident and the environment department having a big public feud over a bear. I kinda feel for the resident, but I do feel the government is right. Deets...

This older resident has problems with one particular bear who says keeps coming to his backyard and raiding his bird feeders or tries to raid. Despite motion activated lights etc. Resident says, capture and move the bear please.

He does NOT want it killed or anything.

He says he's okay with bears in general. But this particular one is big and keeps visiting. Bears are very intelligent and have a good memory and are known to return to sites where they found food.

If bears get too familiar around humans, the env dep does relocate them.

In this case, the govt is saying, dude, just take down your bird feeders.

In general, the DEP is telling people not to put up bird feeders if you live in bear country. It's free easily accessible food for bears! Of course they'll come sniffing.

The resident's objections to this solution are simultaneous sweet and selfish.
His wife had a stroke and is confined to the house. Watching birds in the backyard is one of the things she loves to do. So he doesn't want to take them down.
Sweet, but... You know?

The govt does have programs in which it relocates bears who've gotten too comfy raiding food from residential areas. But the department's analysis showed that said bear hasn't really bothered anyone else. He is big but not aggressive. Doesn't meet the threshold.

So DEP is like, we sympathize with how much your wife loves having bird feeders and the resulting birds, but dude, we aren't going to spend taxpayer money and hassle an otherwise harmless bear so you can keep hanging bird feeders.

The resident is going around saying things like all other bears are okay and "respect" his property and feeders and this one bear is the problematic one. And forest officers are like, dude, that's not how things work. Even if we remove this one, another will come cos feeders.

Yeah, this.

People don't realize that bird feeders are "bird" feeders only in the minds of humans. To all other animals from squirrels to bears, it's free food you keep out in the open but cruelly stop them from having it.

https://twitter.com/Diana_monkey/status/1571136957371252738?t=lahbN6rrlbgzDrtiTd6HXg&s=19

Just checked the camera trap at #OurWawar and got these awesome bear pics! Maybe the same one as in my friend's video.

There was no food at all on that table or nearby. He searched, toppled the table off-camera, then left.

The (reasonably) table is standing in all these pictures. But it was toppled when we got there. Initially I thought he pushed it over to examine the igloos underneath. But they were untouched.

Guess his butt knocked it over on the way out.

Bears are strong!!😲

It was exactly a week ago that this dude sauntered over within 30 feet of me at this very spot when I was there alone, with a radio going.

If I didn't read and watch so much wildlife science, I'd have been so terrified! So big and strong!

I stayed calm. He sauntered away.