{"id":272,"date":"2015-12-12T17:13:04","date_gmt":"2015-12-12T17:13:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.elyminnesota.com\/elybuzz\/?p=272"},"modified":"2015-12-12T18:23:44","modified_gmt":"2015-12-12T18:23:44","slug":"encounter-with-black-bear-in-ely-mn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.elyminnesota.com\/elybuzz\/encounter-with-black-bear-in-ely-mn\/","title":{"rendered":"Encounter with Black Bear in Ely, MN"},"content":{"rendered":"
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See Video at end of Story<\/p><\/div>\n

This is a story about a common Minnesota American Black Bear and a person originally from Indiana, me, who used to believe if you got this close to a Black Bear you were a goner.\u00a0 Obviously not true.\u00a0 Since I did get very close and I\u2019m still here, my beliefs must have been incorrect. Mid September, 2015 I was dutifully taking out the compost to the base of the hill behind our home as I do on occasion. The occasion being when my wife, Betsy, tells me it\u2019s time. She determined that 5:15 PM was about right this evening. Looking up the hill at the back, I saw a Black Bear eating green plants on the hill side not the least concerned about my approach or with my being within 30 feet. The bear just kept slowly moving forward and eating not even looking up. As I walked to the back, not knowing he was there, I wasn\u2019t trying to be quite upon approach and was surprised when I saw him. He (I\u2019ll explain later why I believe it to be a male.) on the other hand couldn\u2019t have cared less about my presence. I took out my ubiquitous smart phone and started taking video. The video at the bottom of this page starts with a short segment of this cell phone video. The video below is a 9:00 minute video condensed from about 1.5 hours of video shot on this first and then a second encounter two days later.\u00a0 Ravens, Crows, a Bluejay along with local dogs barking can be heard in the background.\u00a0 If you listen carefully you can hear Honey Bees buzzing around the camera and can see the little blurs fly by during filming of the video.
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\u00a0Two days after the encounter on the hill behind the house, the bear came in about 11:00 AM to feed on bird seed. I heard a crash outside and went out to see the bear munching on a pile of bird seed he had dumped out of one feeder. I\u2019d filled the large bird feeder cylinder the evening before, so it was full, and that is the one he took down. No damage to the feeder. He is a very gentle bear. After hearing the crash I went outside and slowly approached the bear talking softly to him as I approached. I sat down about 10\u2019 away and began filming. About an hour later I changed positions and sat down for filming about 6\u2019 from the bear at a different angle. After more leisurely feeding he stood up looked around and slowly walked to the other side of the backyard for a drink out of our water fountain. The fountain isn\u2019t very sturdy, the top is loosely sitting on it’s pedestal and certainly wouldn\u2019t hold his weight. But, he didn\u2019t knock it over, just stood up lightly balancing with paws on the fountains edge and had a drink. He then looked up smelling another nearby bird feeder. He started to reach for it and politely got down when I told him rather firmly…NO!
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He then briefly and nicely posed for some photos and went back to the original feeder to partake of what he had left. Maybe the pickens weren’t good enough now. He stood up and slowly moved toward a number of other seed feeders in that same area, stood up on his hind legs and started to take down another feeder. My response was again NO and then a louder No!, and then\u2026.well, you can see the finale in the video, it’s not what I expected!
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A few days later he returned late at night, in the dark, and knocked over one of my neighbors bee hives. That caused a much louder crash than a bird feeder crash. When I rushed outside to see what could have made such a commotion he was gone. Even though he continued to come into the yard late at night, he didn’t touch the other bee hive. He continued to come into the yard well into November even after frosts and freezes that I thought would mean time for hibernation. I\u2019ve been told that male bears may not den up until early December long after the females are in their dens. For that reason I\u2019ve called this young polite beautiful Black Bear a he. Another thing I learned, the hard way, was that Black Bears WILL feed on thistle in thistle feeders. I thought taking down all the other feeders would be sufficient, but not so. We have bear teeth prints in what was a new mesh thistle feeder. And, the bear polished off about 2 lbs. of thistle. From now on ALL bird feeders will be put up early Fall on Boundary St. in Ely.
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