User:FlBlackbear

The Florida Black Bear

Moving to a rural area in Florida was exciting. One day I looked out he window to see our birdfeeder down. Strange I thought. Perhaps a raccoon knocked it down as I visualized one trying to climb up the pole. I immediately went outside to fix the bird feeder, sticking it further into the ground to give it more support.The next day the bird feeder was down on the ground again. I repeated what I had done the day before only to find it down every morning when I woke up.

Then one day we discovered why and how the birdfeeder was getting knocked down. To our amazement, it was a Florida Black Bear! There she was in our backyard with two little black bear cubs next to her. We watched the bears with excitement as they scroured the ground beneath the bird feeder for every seed that had dropped. In the meantime, the cubs played with everything they saw. They were so cute. We continued to watch the little black bears at play, so curious to what was around them. All of a sudden the mama black bear rose to her two hind feet. We were fascintated to see how tall she really was. She rose to the top of the bird feeder and, knocked it down. Of course all the bird seed scattered everywhere. There was the mama black bear, all proud of herself for supplying more food for her cubs.

Of course we took movies and, pictures of this. It was so much fun, like being at the zoo right out your own window. Once the seed was entirely eaten, mama bear grabbed the feeder with her mouth and looked as if she was going to drag it off. We were histerical to say the least. After a while mama and her cubs walked back to the woods and, were soon out of site.

Oh, but it did not stop there. Later the same day we looked out the window and saw a black bear and two big black bear cubs. They too were checking out where the seed had been on the ground, trying to find something left to eat. We took more pictures and movies of the black bear family from the window of our house.

My husband had the movie camera and was standing in our bedroom taking movies out the window. The big babies were wandering around close to the house. All of a sudden the one black bear jumped right at the window. My husband of course jumped back. I guess the black bear was after the recorder light or, maybe even my husband. Actually, it was rather funny at the time. We watched them too but, this time with a little concern. That was 6 black bears in one day. We had a lot of questions.

We called the Florida Fish & Wildlife division. They were very nice and, very knowledgable of the Florida Black Bear. First they told us to take down the birdfeeder to discourage the black bears from coming around. They also ran over some ground rules about living with the black bears. They said the only reason the black bear would hang around is if they found food or, garbage to rummage through. The main goal for a black bear is to eat and, survive.

We listened and, we took down the bird feeder. We kept our garbage in our garage until it was garbage day. The bear visits eventually decreased which was a good thing. They still do come through every now and then.

I would have put a few pictures with this story but, I couldn't figure out how to do it. I still love the Florida Black Bear and, I have learned to respect them and, their surroundings.