Daytime Bear Family

A couple of days ago, I was lying on the couch trying to get some much needed sleep when some yelling and screaming disturbed me.  I was still in a lot of pain from my spinal injuries but, at this point in the overwhelmingly painful week, I was now able to get a bit of sleep for an hour or so at a time.  What awoke me wasn't the sound of screaming and yelling kids playing though. This was older people yelling like they were rodeo cowboys, yipping and hollering, and that is odd since we have no rodeo cowboys within hundreds of miles from here.

After our encounter with a fox in our backyard a couple of weeks ago, I have a couple of my cameras already set up with longer telephoto lenses and ready to grab if something noteworthy happens again.  When I heard this commotion the other day, I got up and immediately grabbed the camera with the longest lens and stepped outside the front door.  

It sounded like the yelling was coming from a couple of doors down from our house and I suddenly saw a bear cub clawing its way up a big tree...  actually, I heard the very distinct sound of long, sharp claws on bark first then suddenly saw the cub scrambling up the tree as I turned toward the source of the sound...  then I saw another cub scrambling up the tree...  then another cub...  then the big ole momma bear.  At this point, I realized that the yelling was a couple of guys trying to scare off this bear family.  It was still daylight out, kids were out playing, people were walking down the street, and this momma bear could seriously hurt someone.  

I heard rocks and sticks hitting the tree as the bears were scrambling up the tree.  The two guys who were trying to scare off this family were actually throwing rocks and sticks at the bears.  Momma bear was huffing, then groaning (likely in frustration), then huffing, then groaning.

Below, you can see the momma bear alternating between huffing and groaning.  It was clear she was conflicted on what to do.  Within a minute or two, the two guys stopped trying to scare the bears away and came over to my house to talk about what we should do next.  In the meantime, they kept the street clear of kids and adults walking as we watched this bear family climb higher and higher into this tree...  branches were creaking under the weight of each of the bears...

If you look closely at this photo, below, you can see that the momma bear was hit in the head with a stick thrown by the two guys trying to scare them off...  I'm sure she was hit by a few thrown rocks too!  Perhaps not the wisest way to handle this situation, however, they did successfully chase her and her cubs out of our vicinity.  

I was able to capture one of the cubs backing his way back down the tree after the momma bear had already climbed down and was waiting for the cubs on the ground.

I don't like these bears frequenting the area even at night but it is really bothersome seeing them during the daylight hours too!  They do a lot of damage and they can be dangerous and easily win any fight with a human.  Fortunately, this bear family was effectively scared out of the area and nobody was hurt...  oh...  and, better yet, I happened to capture a few decent photos of the encounter!