BROKEN — Bill Anderson of Home Camp stands by a broken barn door. The door was broken by a bear, who entered the barn and killed Anderson’s miniature horse. A second miniature horse is missing and Anderson believes the bear may have killed that horse as well. This incident is one of three bear encounters which have occurred over the past few wee
DuBOIS - As autumn marches on and winter approaches, encounters with wildlife, particularly bears can increase with some unpleasant results.
Three neighborhoods have recently had close encounters of the black bear kind, which have residents keeping an eye out for wildlife.
Brad Dunlap, who lives along the Oklahoma/Salem Road between DuBois and Luthersburg, said he and his neighbors have been seeing a large bear, a smaller bear and a mother bear with three cubs roaming the area.
"We live near the woods and seeing wildlife is not uncommon," Dunlap said. "We've never had problems before now. Before if you saw one (bear), it was an event, now it's a regular occurrence." Dunlap said the residents are pretty certain they are all seeing the same animals, particularly the mother bear and cubs, because one of the cubs is a light, cinnamon color.
Dunlap said recently his neighbors have been experiencing problems with the bears getting into their bird feeders.
He said on Tuesday, one or more of the bears went through the neighborhood getting into garbage cans.
"Tuesday is garbage day, so everyone put their garbage out and the bears got into it and it was spread all up and down the road," he said.
Dunlap said he had an unnerving encounter with a bear when he was out archery hunting.
"It was getting pretty dark and I was getting out of my tree stand and I caught sight of movement," Dunlap said. "I couldn't see very well but the bear got within 10 feet of the tree stand. It was the smaller of the two lone bears which was good. I was afraid it might be the mother with the cubs. It looked up at me as if to say 'what are you doing up there' then it wandered away."
He said it was the first time a bear had gotten so close to him.
Dunlap said one of his neighbors was harvesting corn in their fields and spooked the mother and cubs out of the field. He said recently, some of his other neighbors found the larger of the lone bears dead.
"The game commission came out to investigate but they aren't really sure what killed it," Dunlap said.
He said he is not as concerned about the bears as some of his neighbors are, but it does seem like there are more people seeing the animals and they are getting closer to the more populated areas.
"I've had no direct damage but what scares me is people who have dogs and kids," Dunlap said. "I have a dog and I try to pay more attention when I let her out and when she's barking."
Dunlap said he was also concerned because of a recent incident in Perry County where a bear chased a dog into a house and injured the two residents.
Randy Baird of Highland Street Extension is another resident who had an unnerving encounter with a bear.
Baird said he keeps two deer-shaped archery decoys in his yard. One morning, he went outside and found both decoys in pieces.
"My wife thought maybe it had been the wind, but they were pretty sturdy and had rebar in the legs to hold them up," Baird said. "I was thinking maybe another deer attacked them because they're in rut."
Baird said when he went outside, he saw two sets of bear tracks coming down the hill and leading away from the decoys. He said there were teeth marks on the necks of the decoys and claw marks on the flanks. He said the rebar up through the legs had been bent and the interlocking pieces that held the decoys together were broken.
"The tracks led to the driveway, around the car, to the deck and across the street," Baird said. "The pictures don't do it justice. It looked just like you see on the nature programs. It looked like it grabbed the decoy by the sides and bit it on the neck. You can see where it's incisors were. I've always been skeptical about bears eating deer, but this shows that yes, they really do kill deer."
He said the decoys had no deer-scent sprayed on them or anything else that may have enticed the bear to attack. He said he knows bears are curious animals and will sometimes paw at things to get a closer look. However he believes the bears in his yard thought the decoys were prey.
Baird said he has seen bears around occasionally but over the last three years, it seems like the sightings are becoming more common. He said he saw bears in his yard earlier this year which walked right up to the house.
"They showed no fear (of people)," Baird said. "They didn't run or spook. They just walked by."
Baird said he had hummingbird feeders but some of his neighbors have feeders with bird seed and that he tries to put his garbage out the morning before it's collected to help keep the bears from getting into it.
But the most unusual incident occurred in Home Camp on the property of Bill and Sarah Anderson.
The Andersons have property where they raised horses, chickens, cats and dogs.
Bill Anderson said he had a full-sized quarter horse and two miniature horses. He said the quarter horse had recently been euthanized because of illness and it wasn't long after the larger horse's death that they came home and found their miniature mare running free on their property and their miniature gelding was missing.
"We weren't sure what had happened at first," Anderson said. "We thought maybe they were searching for the other horse and broke through the fence." Anderson said he tried to lead the mare back to the barn but she was acting very scared and was whinnying and fighting against the rope.
The Andersons searched the area for the missing gelding but were unable to find him. They posted pictures of the missing horse and offered a reward but never found their pet.
About six days after the gelding went missing, Sarah Anderson went up to the barn to feed the mare and let her out in the field but found the barn door broken and the mare was gone. Sarah said she found the body of the mare several yards away from the barn. There were also bear tracks on the ground around the barn and muddy prints on the door.
Bill Anderson said they had bears on their property before, but never anything this extreme. He said they had a bear break into their chicken feed and into an area where they keep their cats. They also had several chickens go missing, but they are not sure whether it was because of a bear or a fox.
"We called the Game Commission and reported what had happened," Bill Anderson said. He said the officer who came out said it was unusual for a bear to attack livestock, but not unheard of. Anderson said he was told that because its so close to bear hunting season, there would not be enough time to trap the bear and relocate it.
He said he has had horses for many years but never had anything like this happen before.
"We weren't sure what had happened to the other horse," Anderson said. "We thought maybe someone took him but after what happened to Rosie (the mare) we think the bear got to him first and dragged him off somewhere."
"I worry about people who have pets outside," Sarah Anderson said. "I've been telling my neighbors to take their pets in at night and to make sure their barns are secured." The Andersons said they spoke to another resident of the area Thursday who said he had a bear chasing his horse around the field and was able to scare it off.
"If it's the same one, it seems like it's got a taste for horses now," Bill Anderson said. He said he was worried because there is plenty of other food sources, such as acorns, nuts and blackberries on his property, yet the bear seemed to have gone directly after the horse.
"I don't like to talk about it (what happened to the mare) because it's too hard, but people need to know so they can watch out," Bill Anderson said. "I feel bad for Rosie because she knew what happened (to the gelding)."
Dave Stewart, conservation officer for western Clearfield County, said while he was not the officer who went to the Anderson's house because he was on vacation at the time, there was clear evidence that the bear killed the horse but he does not know for sure what happened to the gelding.
"It's almost impossible to know what happened for sure," Stewart said. "Bears are opportunistic feeders and there's no way to know why exactly it broke into the barn. There's a lot of circumstances here. It was an older horse, it was in a small area and it couldn't get away." Stewart said it's possible that the bear had smelled grain or another possible food source inside which prompted it to break through the door. Once inside, the bear encountered the horse and killed it.
Stewart said this is only the second incident he has heard of in his 13 years with the Game Commission where bears killed livestock.
"Even if we set traps, the chances of catching the actual bear that killed the horse are slim," Stewart said. "There are a lot of bears in the area and there's no way to know if we caught the right one. We can trap it and take it somewhere else, but sometimes they do come back, or another bear will take it's place if there's food available."
At this time of year, bears are becoming very active and are searching for food before they hibernate for the winter. The Game Commission recommends that residents take all bird feeders in for the winter. Residents can spray their garbage cans with bleach or ammonia to keep bears out of trash. They're also encouraged to keep pet food inside overnight after pets are fed. The commission recommends turning lights on outside before taking pets out to make sure there are no bears in the area
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