My husband (Jim) and I came home and found HUGE bear
tracks in the snow around our house last night. The
bear had knocked down the shepherd's pole that held
the bird feeders and opened up our garbage.

Now, I know there are two camps about having bird
feeders but let's put that aside for a moment...

I THOUGHT BEARS HIBERNATED DURING THE WINTER!!!!!!

According to the Washington wildlife site I visited,
they said to only put up feeders from November to
March. What's a bear doing raiding my feeders this
late in the season?

I took photos of the tracks:

Shows the claw marks well:
http://wildmaven.org/pb/track1.jpg

Shows the pads of the foot well:
http://wildmaven.org/pb/track2.jpg

For comparison, Jim put his foot, size 10 1/2, next to
one of the tracks:
http://wildmaven.org/pb/track3.jpg

Could the recent storm have destroyed his den? None of
our neighbors feed bears, so I know he's not
human-conditioned. We live right on a ravine with no
homes behind us for miles.

Marian Murdoch
Belfair, WA (out by Twanoh State Park)
marianmurdoch at yahoo.com


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