California Bears a Warning for Idaho

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We’ve seen this story before.  Grizzly and black bears are common in Idaho’s panhandle, or at least to the point where they sometimes break into homes while looking for a snack.  In a case from several years ago near Sandpoint, bears raided a refrigerator, drank all the homeowner’s Pepsi, and then left deposits on the carpet.  These encounters are worse if you’re at home at the time.  In a recent YouTube video, a bear scales the siding of a house and enters through a second-story window.  There were people inside!  None were hurt.

A fellow on the California side of Lake Tahoe recently had an intruder.  A large bear managed to get through a window and raid a pantry.  The guy was lucky he was away.  He was out on a boat and discovered a mess when he got home.  Security cameras provided a quick answer as to the culprit.

Yogi may look cuddly but I wouldn’t want to tangle with him.  A friend of mine lived in New York’s Adirondack Range.  Bears had climbed to the second-floor deck and attempted to pry away the casing around sliding glass doors.  They didn’t succeed, but there were some impressive claw marks left behind.  And those are smaller bears!

A bear can smell food inside a can.  You need to make sure your house is bear-proof and find ways to eliminate food odors.  Not always easy.  My daughter dropped some marshmallows into a campfire when she was a little girl.  The next morning a bear was sorting through the ashes.  Luckily, we were locked in a cabin.