Mother bear with 3 cubs raids Alpine View apple tree

One cub in an apple tree while mother looks on

The last few days bears have been wandering through Tahsis looking for berry bushes, fruit trees and attractive garbage and compost bins. Christine Hendrix has seen quite a few bears on her property at 523 Alpine View ( Gentle Valley Guest House & Chris's Art Gallery ), and she finally had a good photo opportunity when a mother bear with her 3 cubs started climbing the next door neighbors apple tree.


Two cubs in an apple tree...

"Steve (my husband) was working on our fence doing repairs when he spotted the bears and called me. I went to the window in my art studio and had a good view of the bears in the apple tree so I took a dozen pictures on my digital camera. Then, thinking I might want to use more pictures for a painting, I went into our guest suite at ground level to get another angle. I took another dozen pictures."


Three cubs in an apple tree!

"I wanted to go out to the back yard and get closer, but I thought that would be stupid. Especially since I had seen the mother bear chasing off a male bear in our back yard last night."


More cub antics... one cub takes a precarious position to get that last apple...

The pictures of the bears in our backyard next to the next big rocks were taken last night, of the same bears. I have a picture that didn't come out very clearly of the mother bear confronting and chasing off a male bear."


Male bear about to enter Gentle Valley Guest House's back yard on Sunday at twilight


Mother bear confronts male bear and successfully chases him away


A cub follows his mother closely

Sadly, we heard today from Ted Enfield that a male bear had killed and eaten one of the mother bear's 3 cubs today, at a close by spot across the Tahsis River. However, Steve Hendrix remarked that the mother bear was looking very scrubby and skinny, so it is probably for the best that she only have the 2 cubs to take care of over the winter.

There have been many more bears about town this year than last year. Last week Debra Connibear saw a bear break down a the fence and break a big branch on a neighbor's apple tree up on Discover Crescent. She described the bear as the biggest one she had seen, at least 3 to 4 feet at the shoulders when down on all fours. She has also noted that a lot of her favorite berry bushes have either been stripped by the bears, or are in the process of being stripped.

The Salmon have not yet started to go up the river in big enough numbers to provide the bears with food, but the bears have already come down from the hills in anticipation of the salmon run, so they are rummaging around the Tahsis berry patches and fruit trees in the meantime. Many locals have remarked there are many more bears about the town than last year.