Althouse: Bear! (Maybe this isn't shocking to you where you live, but it is to me.)

May 4, 2023

Bear! (Maybe this isn't shocking to you where you live, but it is to me.)

46 comments:

Leland said...: Wednesday, Constables responded to a call in my neighborhood of deer in the front yard. That really happened, but I don’t know why the Constables were called. They did herd the deer back to a nearby woods.; 5/4/23, 7:06 AM
Curious George said...: Shouldn't be shocking. Middleton had one last year and the year before. And had one years ago when I lived there.; 5/4/23, 7:07 AM
RideSpaceMountain said...: Must be the cocaine, cause that bear is high.; 5/4/23, 7:08 AM
rehajm said...: In the Boston area police always botched these. They alert the all the media of the unique sighting of moose/bear telling people to STAY AWAY which of course they don’t so the cops try to corral and shoo the animal away from the people, the animal freaks out and tries to run away, so the cops conclude the animal is an imminent threat to public safety so the guy who hasn’t been to the range in a while empties two mags worth of .40 cal into trees cars and houses before he finally hits the poor thing…so they have to hire the moose/bear equivalent of Quint from Jaws to drive down from New Hampshire and put the thing out of its misery…

I don’t have high hopes for Madison but hopefully you’re better than that…; 5/4/23, 7:15 AM
tim maguire said...: This is my all-time favorite bear in a tree video. Especially half way through when the cameraman gets bored and starts filming other stuff.; 5/4/23, 7:15 AM
PB said...: Pretty healthy looking bear. There are more.; 5/4/23, 7:17 AM
Owen said...: You don’t want to bother that bear. Trouble is, the bear —not you— will be the judge of what “bothering” means. Also: if you do need to use a gun to defend yourself, you’ll need a big one. With bullets that go through houses like paper. So the collateral damage problem is not trivial. Good luck.

PS: this is undoubtedly due to climate change.; 5/4/23, 7:17 AM
rehajm said...: Theres a black bear that likes my neighborhood in Lake Tahoe, which is on the Nevada side but most of my neighbors are SF SV refugees so they all panic when it's around. My wife grew up with grizzlies to dodge so we can’t muster two effs about a black bear. It’s frustrating to have neighbors rush out into the second fairway to yell at us to run for our lives because a bear was ‘just here half an hour ago’…

…the best is the guy walking around the neighborhood with the hoodie sweatshirt over his head, looking like he just sold Uncle Owen a bum droid. His ensemble is completed with a rope belt decorated in multiple bells. I’m guessing he’s a numbered Google employee…; 5/4/23, 7:23 AM
iowan2 said...: Explain to me again how humans are ruining the habitat for all the wild animals.; 5/4/23, 7:24 AM
Enigma said...: Madison needs to reintroduce wolves.

We need more wolves and wolves everywhere to keep the cow and pet dog and cat populations down. Cows fart too much methane and cause global warming. Cats eat too many wild birds and should be banned as domestic outdoor pets. Dogs...are too subservient to humans and give humans bad ideas????

Another bonus is that wolves eat riff-raff and might keep city streets clean at night.

So say many city folks who think nature in the abstract.

Jonathan Swift Friday.; 5/4/23, 7:25 AM
Humperdink said...: Generally no cubs, no problem with bears. Just don't feed it.; 5/4/23, 7:33 AM
Quaestor said...: Usually this sort of "intrusion" is caused by someone who thinks tempting bears is fun.; 5/4/23, 7:38 AM
Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...: wow - that's a big bear you got there..

We had a mamma bear and two cubs in the hood' almost a decade ago. It was quite a show. The division of wild life showed up and tranquilized all of them and took them up to the northern mountains. The cubs were adorable...; 5/4/23, 8:05 AM
wild chicken said...: No, bears are scary even in Montana. A cub showed up at our place and I freaked because usually the mother is nearby. Thanks to legal protection there are too many around now! The woods were much safer in the 70s.

A commenter on another blog was mauled by a bear at her place in the sierras. Someone saw the story in the paper and she confirmed. Her dogs saved her but not before her face was partially removed.; 5/4/23, 8:06 AM
Original Mike said...: That location is an awfully long ways into the city. Stupid bear.; 5/4/23, 8:18 AM
Whiskeybum said...: DNR officials are hopeful it will find its own way out of our city!

More likely, with the residents and the DNR shying away from the bear, and all that good Madison garbage easily available at mealtime, the bear will become a permanent fixture in the area.

The next headline we're likely to see is "Criminals spotted hanging out on Madison's west side - Madison police are hopeful they will turn from their lives of crime and become upstanding, productive citizens!"; 5/4/23, 8:24 AM
Rusty said...: More people are killed each year by black bears than grizzly bears.; 5/4/23, 8:27 AM
BarrySanders20 said...: Black bears, unless rabid or in cub-protection mode, are skittish and will seek to get away from humans. They are more scared of you than you should be of them. No gun needed. If you need protection, get bear spray. Cheap, handy, and it works on troublesome humans as well.; 5/4/23, 8:38 AM
Meade said...: Pretty sure no one in Wisconsin has ever been killed by a bear. The #1 killer of humans by wildlife in Wisconsin is deer.; 5/4/23, 8:52 AM
RideSpaceMountain said...: "The #1 killer of humans by wildlife in Wisconsin is deer."

There's a bounty. The deer are trying to thin the herd to cut down on CWD (Chronic Wisconsin Disease). They kill because they care.; 5/4/23, 8:56 AM
Inga said...: This is no scaredy cat; 5/4/23, 9:09 AM
Bob Boyd said...: Cool. Have you seen the bear?
It's not uncommon to see bears in my yard and neighborhood, especially in the fall. In fact, it's a good idea to be aware of their possible presence if you go outside in the dark. They're very hard to see and usually your eyes take a minute or two to adjust. You don't want to surprise one. It helps if you have a dog.; 5/4/23, 9:20 AM
Rusty said...: Meade said...
"Pretty sure no one in Wisconsin has ever been killed by a bear. The #1 killer of humans by wildlife in Wisconsin is deer."
They're lousy drivers.; 5/4/23, 9:20 AM
TaeJohnDo said...: "DNR officials are hopeful it will find its own way out of our city." I hope he left a trail of dismembered body parts to find his (or her or whatever it identifies as) back out.; 5/4/23, 9:22 AM
Rusty said...: Blogger Quaestor said...
"Usually this sort of "intrusion" is caused by someone who thinks tempting bears is fun."
Probably just got done with hibernation in the last few weeks and nothing is on the ground to eat. So it went looking for food. They look adorable until they decide your a threat.; 5/4/23, 9:24 AM
Kirk Parker said...: In Soviet Madison, bear approaches you!; 5/4/23, 9:29 AM
Andrew said...: If you give the bear some honey, it will become friendly and playful.; 5/4/23, 9:31 AM
Joe Smith said...: I'd be pretty shocked too if it's a mostly-white neighborhood.

Think of the property values...; 5/4/23, 9:48 AM
Bob Boyd said...: I'd be pretty shocked too if it's a mostly-white neighborhood.

Think of the property values...

The polar bears are lined up around the block at the local U-Haul dealer. White flight.; 5/4/23, 10:23 AM
Jupiter said...: Shoot the fucking thing already.; 5/4/23, 10:34 AM
n.n said...: OcccupyTheTree could be a solution to homeless bears.; 5/4/23, 11:25 AM
David Blaska said...: Just as a blind squirrel is right twice a day, we can ask, "Does the bear shit in Meadowood?"; 5/4/23, 11:43 AM
gilbar said...: Humperdink said...
Generally no cubs, no problem with bears. Just don't feed it.

That's Crazy Talk!
If you don't feed it, HOW are you going to get it into your car.. for a Really cute pic*
If there's no cubs.. The pic won't be cute even IF you get him into your car.
The TRICK, to a REALLY cute pic, is to smear blackberry jelly all over your face, then let the bear come into your car, and lick it off (WAY cuter, if the cubs join in too!)
FEED THE BEARS!! INVITE THEM INTO YOUR CARS!! YOU OWE IT TO THE GENE POOL

Really cute pic* If still pix are cute.. IMAGINE just How Cute a tiktok video would be!!!; 5/4/23, 12:11 PM
gilbar said...: Joe Smith said...
I'd be pretty shocked too if it's a mostly-white neighborhood.

Black Bears MATTER!!; 5/4/23, 12:11 PM
Steven Wilson said...: Not sure black bears hibernate. Living in West Virginia, I know we have them in all 55 counties. Most of them, happily, tend to be in the sparsely populated mountains. Deer, coyote, fixes, opossums, and bobcats in my part of the world to go along with the bears. Not play things by any means and I mean the other species as well as the bears.; 5/4/23, 12:17 PM
Fred Drinkwater said...: I'd be shocked if a bear showed up around here. Any such bear would just be asking to be mountain lion dinner.; 5/4/23, 12:30 PM
Maynard said...: We very often see bobcats, deer, coyotes, javelinas, hawks, owls, lizards and rattlesnakes behind our house and on our patio. (It is on a nature preserve).

It is important to know how to deal with such wildlife so as not to be unduly afraid or unduly unafraid.

I am mostly afraid of rattlers having been confronted twice by coiled monsters ready to strike. They are extremely defensive and will leave you alone if you just back away. I don't know about bears.; 5/4/23, 2:01 PM
Mr. T. said...: That bear is in blackface!

Cultural appropriation!

Quick! We need to get a bunch if UW students to scream, riot, burn, pillage, and rape the birthing individuals! Argle! Bargle! Beargle!; 5/4/23, 2:15 PM
JaimeRoberto said...: Bears in Wisconsin? Football season doesn't start for a few more months.; 5/4/23, 2:26 PM
Bruce Hayden said...: “No, bears are scary even in Montana. A cub showed up at our place and I freaked because usually the mother is nearby. Thanks to legal protection there are too many around now! The woods were much safer in the 70s”

Couple hours NW of you in MT. My partner got there in the 80s. She and her ex had/have a half section of farmland. Black bear took up residence there for several years. Just a fact of nature. More likely to die from when your car interacts with a pre-venison, which are ubiquitous on the roads in NW MT. Saw two pair of them in the middle of the road, yesterday, in the middle of day, in a 70 mph section of the highway. Back to bears. We technically live in town now, but in the middle of natural habitat large enough to support bears. Which means that we very often have them living in close proximity. You just deal with them - like the coyotes by our house in PHX. You don’t leave out your trash until the day of pickup, or just haul it yourself to the dump. I carry a 10 mm with bear loads when walking our small dog in MT, and 9 mm SD rounds when in AZ. We came about 10’ from one last year in MT. Dog alerted, we pulled back, and then heard the distinctive “woof” on the other side of the thicket. We went the other way, and used another route for a couple days. Two years ago, we had the cutest little maybe 2 year old in the neighborhood. He would sleep right outside our bedroom window, and cry. Figure he was recently weaned, and not so happy about it. Love watching it when the bears stand up, and when they essentially flow over fences. Got a bunch of pictures of that young one.

Our Black bears are most often brown, very different from the one shown in Ann’s picture, and little different in coloring from the Brown Bears we have on the north ridge (we have wolves on the south ridge, presumably migrated from your area). Browns and Blacks coexist, but not really well, because the Browns are more likely to predate on the Blacks, than on humans. We haven’t seen any Brown Bears down by our town, though a couple of them ending up dying around the town 30 miles west of us. You tell them apart based on body structure, instead of coloring, and treat Brown bears much more respectfully.; 5/4/23, 3:23 PM
Meade said...: If there IS a bear.; 5/4/23, 4:11 PM
The Godfather said...: In 1960, when I was 17, my buddy and I borrowed my father's station wagon for a month and drove from New England out to the National Parks from Canada to the Grand Canyon. In most of the camp grounds there were bears, particularly a lot in Yellowstone. The bears wandered through the campgrounds, at will (it was THEIR property, after all). The Rangers told us not to interact with them (it was really tempting to give a bear a pat, like a REALLY BIG dog, but we didn't.) We were told to lock our food away in our cars, and we did, and had no serious problems. Except in the Grand Canyon, where we had no car -- but the big threat there was not a bear but a skunk. We followed the same Do-Not-Engage policy there, and survived.; 5/4/23, 6:01 PM
PM said...: Meade:
Nice Riney spot.; 5/4/23, 6:36 PM
Michael said...: Simple. Put sixty cans of coke near the curb and call animal control.; 5/4/23, 10:14 PM
typingtalker said...: An excellent PBS documentary, Bears of Durango, tells us that if people put their bear-attracting garbage into locked bear-proof containers, the bears will go away.

This is one of those PBS things that is often hidden (buried?) in their midnight to five AM time slots. In my case, a brief three AM trip to the facilities followed by, "I wonder if there's anything on tv?" kept me awake for another hour or so.

Bears of Durango

Science is work.; 5/5/23, 9:40 AM
Gordon Scott said...: There was a black bear wandering close to where I lived in Minneapolis (deported 2021). This was Monday. He became the latest gun violence fatality.; 5/9/23, 10:20 AM