A bear in the swimming pool!!!

john8pies · Post by **john8pies** » Tue May 24, 2005 12:31 am

I just came in on the end of an item on BBC news - an American or Canadian family had returned home to find a bear swimming in their pool - it had apparently come down from the mountains because it was too hot. They showed you a video of it ; it was a HUGE black bear; apparently the police tranquilised it and then released it back into the wilds!

Have looked on the BBC website but unable to find; anybody got any further details or pictures please? :-6

BTS · Post by **BTS** » Tue May 24, 2005 3:58 am

ABC Online

Bear takes a dip in backyard pool. 24/05/2005. ABC News Online

Last Update: Tuesday, May 24, 2005. 12:16pm (AEST)

A bear takes a wrong turn in a backyard swimming pool (ABC TV)

Bear takes a dip in backyard pool

It was a case of "there's a bear in there" when a Californian family found a 65-kilogram female bear cooling off in their backyard swimming pool.

Police were called to a house in the San Fernando Valley to deal with the interloper.

Along with wildlife officials, they tranquilised the bear and returned it to the wild in the Santa Susana mountains.

"It looks like it's possibly in heat," the LA Times newspaper quoted Cindy Wood of the California Department of Fish and Game as saying.

"She probably just made a wrong turn and ended up in a neighbourhood. She belongs up in the hills and that's where she lives."

john8pies · Post by **john8pies** » Tue May 24, 2005 4:00 am

Thanks, BTS, that`s one great story!

BTS · Post by **BTS** » Tue May 24, 2005 4:07 am

Your welcome john.

Just wanted to let everyone know you were not seeing things.........LOL

minks · Post by **minks** » Tue May 24, 2005 9:15 am

Isn't that a hoot. Yep cute as heck story I saw it too. But I have to say, I am impressed as heck at the family whose pool that bear visited. They took that video from behind their fence, they stayed clear of the bear and were very very wise. I can't tell you how many times I have seen idiots (yes this weekend included) of folks visiting the mountains and trying to get "closer" to the bears for pictures. Ack people these bears can be killers. Sure they are adorable looking especially the blacks and the browns, but lordy one swipe of a paw and your minus a thigh or a face.

robinseggs · Post by **robinseggs** » Tue May 24, 2005 10:54 pm

Soooo...I am supposed to go camping with my cubscout this wkend....and a 6 ft black bear was just shot for threatening a guy near where we will be. Any suggestions? How can I protect us? Do they like tents?

lady cop · Post by **lady cop** » Wed May 25, 2005 1:43 am

robinseggs wrote: Soooo...I am supposed to go camping with my cubscout this wkend....and a 6 ft black bear was just shot for threatening a guy near where we will be. Any suggestions? How can I protect us? Do they like tents?don't leave any food out. lock it up in a cooler in your vehicle. they will tear up a tent for food.

minks · Post by **minks** » Wed May 25, 2005 9:55 am

lady cop wrote: don't leave any food out. lock it up in a cooler in your vehicle. they will tear up a tent for food.

Do not cook in your tent or down wind from your tent either.

minks · Post by **minks** » Wed May 25, 2005 9:59 am

and

when hiking make constant noice, wear a bear bell, or just continue to talk. If you encounter a small bear, walk away from it cause mom is not far away do not get in between the 2.

If you encounter a bear, they are now saying talk calmly and back away, do not lay down and play dead. Pray like heck you don't encounter one.

The key is not to startle them or be inbetween mom and baby, tis the coming out season so babies are about.

BTS · Post by **BTS** » Thu May 26, 2005 7:39 am

minks wrote: and

when hiking make constant noice, wear a bear bell, or just continue to talk.
Good points minks...

The tinkling of the bells is annoying to the beasts, and will cause them to flee the area. Also, pepper spray will also hinder an attack, or reduce the chances of it. In addition, people should have to be made aware of the warning signs that a bear, black, grizzly, or otherwise, was in the area. The easiest way to ascertain what type had been in the area, is to study the droppings. Black bear droppings are soft, not too large, and contain remains of berries, leaves, or the occasional fish. Grizzly bear droppings are larger, firmer, and contain any number of small brass bells, and smell stronly of pepper.

"How can you tell grizzly scat from black bear scat? You'll find bear bells in the grizzly scat."

minks · Post by **minks** » Thu May 26, 2005 7:50 am

ahahahahahah funny stuff but true bears nead to be handled with care. You are more likely to see a black or brown than you are of a grizzley.

Remember if your going to take flight you only have to be faster than the slowest member of your group.

valerie · Post by **valerie** » Thu May 26, 2005 11:41 am

lady cop wrote: don't leave any food out. lock it up in a cooler in your vehicle. they will tear up a tent for food. They will also tear up a vehicle. If you put your cooler inside (and you

SHOULD!) disguise the shape with clothing or blankets.

Robinseggs, you will probably be fine in the area you're going, the

heightened awareness and shooting of the "resident" bear might actually

make that place SAFER... for a while!

Keep ANYTHING else packed away, too. Basically anything you use,

toothpaste, shampoo, it all should be put away. Don't rinse a plate and

toss the water in the woods, anything like that.

minks · Post by **minks** » Thu May 26, 2005 11:59 am

suspend your food and good smelling stuff in a bag from a limb of a tree far enough away from the tree trunk so the bear can't take a swipe at it and reach it from the trunk, and high enough so the bear cant reach it from the ground.

Ah yes toothpaste indeed, no spitting in the woods.

Yes they can tear into a vehicle if they really want, and that is one desperate bear.

robinseggs · Post by **robinseggs** » Fri May 27, 2005 1:54 am

lady cop wrote: don't leave any food out. lock it up in a cooler in your vehicle. they will tear up a tent for food.

Hmmm..ok but will they tear up a tent for human????!! LOL....after reading everyone's posts, I am having serious doubts about this camping trip!! Help!! LOL..No, really I am going and I am looking forward to it, go every year, but this latest news of the bear in the area got my attention. The idea of pepper spray went thru my mind although I had visions of a bear tearing into the tent and the whole thing collapsing on us all and me spraying the pepper spray knocking out 3 cubscouts and their mothers!!!!!!! LOL

On a lighter note....funny--last yr we had 3 moms, 3 boys and 3 doublebed size blow up mattresses in one 6 man tent!! It was such a tight fit that it took all 3 of us moms together to zip the darn thing up at night and so we had a "last call" to the potty each night. Once that thing was zipped you were IN for the night!!! Not sure the bear could get in if he wanted to!!! LOL..

lady cop · Post by **lady cop** » Fri May 27, 2005 2:02 am

everyone is right, they are relentless in the search for food. you must take every precaution. when i was a kid we camped in the blue ridge mountains, and the bears would come to the car for treats. we were wrong to train them to look to humans for food. black bears are not killing people, but look at grizzlies in alaska, they do kill.

robinseggs · Post by **robinseggs** » Sat Jun 11, 2005 6:36 am

Ok I am back from the camping trip.....turns out the only thing we had to fear were a few mad drunks in the next tent.... Woke up several times pretty sure we were about to be driven over by their truck, and our boys heard words they had never heard before...yikes! Somehow we still had a great time!