One of the many wonderful things about living in Alaska is all the excitement that abounds when you are sharing your backyard with such wonderful wildlife. Well, this summer, Bob and I have definitely had our eyes opened to learning to live with the BEARS!
Last year, we experienced lots and lots of moose in our yard all the time and this year, in the bush, we deal with being confronted on a regular basis by a big ol' grizzly bear. In fact, just the other night, I told Bob I heard a loud noise and he went outside to inspect. He got to the corner of our house and discovered he was nose to nose with a giant brown bear! You can imagine what went through Bob's mind....The bear made a loud "huffing" noise at Bob and continued to stare him down. Bob, slowly backed up and came inside to get his gun. When he returned the bear had disappeared. The bear's paw prints were all around our garage door and we think it was trying to figure out how to get in there. We keep our fish in a freezer in the garage. We are now extra careful about the freezer and any other smell coming from the garage, like trash.
Due to that incident and many others, like where the bears paw prints had been all over car windows in the morning, or where the bears had gotten into boats and tipped the gas can and everything over etc. etc. We are very careful when we open our door at night or early in the morning. We look both ways before we step outside and we keep our bear spray and guns nearby always.
Below are just a few pictures I took during the month of July. The bears usually came out in the evening time around 11 pm or so, but lately, now that the salmon run is almost over, they've been pretty brave and come out during the day as they search for more food. Most of these bears are the same two brother and sister. We believe they are about 2 years old. We think their momma has been killed so they are learning to fend for themselves. This is why they are so brave because they haven't really been taught very well.
In fact, one morning, one of my friends called Bob to let him know what happened in their yard last night. She started by saying, "I know you can't arrest them, but they really are becoming a nuisance." She proceeded to tell him that they grilled some of their salmon that night on the grill and in the morning, she went outside and found her grill, which stood right next to her house had been squashed several times over and smashed completely flat to the ground by the bears! I saw pictures of it and it was as flat as a pancake! She said, the bear apparently tried to open the grill but couldn't get inside to get to the fish smell, so it kept punching and beating it to get it open and then just smashed it to the ground! Yikes!
A nice evening stroll for the pair of 2 year old cubs seen here.
All of the darker pictures were taken the first night we saw the bears. This was around midnight and we had just come in from filleting our fish we caught that night. We were in the process of sealing our fish to be stored in the freezer when everyone started calling each other to let them know the bears were out. We took a break from our packaging to get some pictures. The bears made a b-line towards the beach where our nets were all sitting. They knew exactly where to go to look for the fish as they could smell what we had gutted and filleted there that night. However, the seagulls and eagles had pretty much eaten everything by that point.
Heading right for our fishing nets on the beach to see what fish guts and all were left for their dinner.
These are different from the other two bears. The big one is a momma sow and the teeny tiny fur ball you see next to her is her cub. I took this picture from our bedroom window - in the safety of our house - one night.
I like to title this picture,
"Peek-A-Boo."
This was also taken the first night we saw the bears out. When this guy popped up from the bushes right in front of where Bob was standing! Yikes!
Anyone up for a refreshing and ICY dip in the lake?
This guy was also in our backyard. Oftentimes, they hang out around the corner from our house and they unintentionally cause a little blockade for my girlfriends and I when we want to go on a walk. So, our walks have been seriously limited this summer between all the rain and the bears blocking our path.
Looking for dinner.
Heading to the beach for fish.
As beautiful and cool as these bears are, they definitely have caused many problems and scares for all of us living with them out here. Bob oftentimes goes out in the evenings on "bear patrol" and if any are near homes, he shoots them with these special firecracker shells that have a delayed charge in them. It is supposed to scare them away and teach them not to come around people's homes. This week has been better and we haven't seen as many, but they are probably just moving on to a different food source area as the salmon are not as plentiful right now. Soon, they will be out looking for berries.
1 comment:
Heloooooooo!
Post a Comment