Black Bear

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We had a visitor this afternoon, a good size black bear in my small back yard. My yard is 60' by 100' and is surrounded by similar sized properties next to us and behind us. We live in a older established lake community in NJ, not out in the "boonies" but not a "development" either. Over the last 15 years I've seen 5 or more black bears in my yard. The first one was in the summer around 15 years ago and I had just finished cooking burgers on the grill and I was standing in front of it talking to my friend on the phone. All of a sudden I got "nudged" from behind and there was a black bear standing there sniffing and nudging me. I thought "oh great, human, the other white meat
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" He looked at me and sniffed some more and finally walked past me, I guess he was full
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. When I moved here 40 years ago I never had wild life in my yard, now it's like a wild life refuge. Actually today's black bear is smart as bow season just started and it can't be hunted while in residential neighborhoods
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.

Whimsey
 
Your friend is looking for food as he/she is about to take a long nap. Their primary food source right now are tree nuts and residents of NJ.
 
When you see 'em with babies, feel free to pick one of the cubs up and take it inside for pictures.

Any reservations about aging will magically vanish.
 
Did he have a "Smokey the Bear" hat on?

I saw one a month or so ago pulling garbage out of a container. When he saw my car he climbed up a tree.

I keep thinking of the John Candy movie, "The Great Outdoors". They went bear watching at the dump and ended up with bears on his car roof.

Bears consume about 50,000 calories a day just before hibernation. Their insulin level goes through the roof to cause fat to be stored towards the skin.
 
We had family that lived in Sparta NJ, top of the mountain. Once while I was visiting, I saw a baby black bear run across their back yard, through to the other yards and then he (she?) stopped to eat the dog food on the rear porch and then jumped in that neighbors pool. Yes, if I only had my phone to video!

We'd visit with our dog, we always watched out for the bears, they were there first.
 
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