Tiaribbon

.....since you are all being very friendly today - I wonder if you could give me a shove in the right direction please.

Yesterday morning when I was out feeding the horses (and stranded in a corral about 100 ft from the house) a bear was lurking in the treeline near my garden. It was gently grunting and snuffling around - didn't come out of the undergrowth but was there! Now I am absolutely petrified of bears and was not in the best location to plan an escape route. The horses were absolutely freaking out but I had to abandon them and briskly made my way back to the house and locked the door. Then I sat at the window watching and the horses were just going crazy, so I plucked up the courage to do something. I quickly ran out to the truck and drove it around the back field beeping my horn, sat for a while in the middle of the field (safely inside my truck) and seeing no more movement guessed that it had run away.

The horses settled down again but I stayed in the house all day until school run time.

Now I know I am being a tad silly here - but today I am afraid to go out. Reason tells me that it will be long gone and that as I hold no garbage or foodstuffs outside then it wouldn't hang around..............however I am absolutely petrified of bears and everytime I try to pluck up the courage to go out, I just can't! My stomach is churning even at the thought of it.

Souvenir

Slaps some sense into Tiaribbon, then runs back into house and hides behind sofa.

I'm sure it's gone by now. It was just looking for food, not stalking you.

willmore

Unless of course the bear is still hungry!

Tiaribbon

Argh!!! Now you see it is comments like this that are also lurking in my mind!!

Tiaribbon

I know - still worrying though, when your biggest defence is a water pistol! Gonna trade it in for a shotgun as soon as I get my Licence.

Daveyboy_The_Red

where in ontario are you?

Souvenir

I dunno. In the right hands a water pistol can be lethal. Particularly if it's hooked up to a pressure washer.

Grah

Do you have a fog horn attached to your belt and a bear pepper spray.

This time of year aren't most bears looking for some where to sleep?


here's an interesting article about bears bear study

Tiaribbon

I live in the White Zone - where it states that NO bears reside!! Midway between Peterboro' and Belleville.

Tiaribbon

Thank you for that article - karma coming your way!

Pepper spray is now on my list of "must-have's" - on my way to get some now! Then my horses can finally be fed! Just one thing...........do you really think pepper spray works???

Steve_P

We've always been told that bears are actually quite shy and if you make noise when you're in bear country it warns them that you there and they will avoid you.

Here is a link to something I found for hikers in B.C. maybe it'll help in you in your plight.

Cheers
Steve

dingbat

You need to let the local equivalent to park rangers know that you have a bear in a white zone. If s/he's down that far by your property, it may be a mature cub that has lost it's family. Either way, let them deal with it if you value your horses. The bear was probably hungry but they can (not often) get aggressive and try and go for the horses/you if the hunger is bad.

Edward de Par

Thats fear setting in there! This is a scary scenario for anyone not used to wild animals and the inner person realizes one's life could be in danger.

A bit of post traumatic stress will shut a person down and not able to function for a while. I heard its quite common not to be able to go out of the house and operate properly when something like that happens. It happened to me after a "bullying at work" scenario. Left the job and "froze" in the house for weeks. Couldn't even near the place ever again.

It's quite amazing how these things play with your mind and you keep going over and over it .
In any event,.. only the constant venturing out and getting back into a routine will get you back to normal bravety. Time heals.

Try going out and keeping close to the house and then venturing a bit further a field each time. Dont start with any pills or booze and you'll be fine.

MikeUK

If pepper spray and MACE work in a similar way then yes..

I watched a documentary about polar bears in which Russian researcher in the Artic protected himself with mace against polar bears.. even deterring the alpha male during a full on charge..

finallygotout

The WHITE ZONE? Let's hope no one misconscrues that :scared: