Bears, bears, and more bears

Momma bear crossing the road outside my window

Well, lots more bear activity in Tahsis since I posted Christine Hendrix's photos of the mom with 3 cubs! A few days ago a big black bear came by early in the am and got into our next door neighbour's carport and took out his garbage can, took it to the empty lot across the street and rolled it around for a while trying to get in. Jim and the neighbour found this objectionable, and went out there to shoo the bear away... well, the bear didn't shoo and Jim and Wally finally went back inside.

My opinion... let the bear have the garbage can--but that's just me.


One of the cubs walking across my lawn

I was talking to Cathy at Westview Marina, and she reported a bear went down the ramp to the docks, and went up the side staircase to her upstairs suite on the main marina building. There was a gate at the top which the bear didn't crawl over, but the dogs were quite excited for a while by the visit.


Momma and one cub at the edge of our property crossing over into the neighbours yard

And, two days ago we had a visit at our house by a momma bear and 2 cubs... most likely the same ones photographed by Christine Hendrix. Here are a photo of the mom bear crossing the road outside our house, one of the cubs crossing our yard, and one of momma and one cub at the edge of our yard walking over to our neighbours yard. We could hear the progress of her and her cubs by listening to which dogs were barking in the neighborhood. I went out in the car to see if I could get a photograph of them on the river bank, but didn't see them again. Of course, a 1979 pinto with a broken muffler pipe is not the best thing to go bear scouting with.

I've put a call in to the Conservation office and the Nootka Sound RCMP with a request for a comment and more information on the unusual level of bear activity, and hopefully I'll have something from the to post later today or tomorrow.