We have seen signs of bear activity on our property in the Ninemile Valley since we moved here over six years ago—tracks, scat, stumps torn apart, even garbage cans knocked over and garbage strewn all over the road, but we have never seen a bear on the property until this year.

A couple of years ago, we had a young bear that was making a nuisance of itself in the neighborhood. It would knock over garbage cans and spread garbage all over. He tried breaking into our shed, and succeeded in ripping the lock off of the door and peeling back a corner of the metal roof. We had stored a couple of garbage bags in the shed because we didn’t want to put them in the can. It wasn’t garbage pick-up for a couple more days, and we didn’t want him to get at it and make a mess, so we locked it in the shed instead. If some noise hadn’t scared him off, he may have succeeded in getting at it anyways.

Two weekends ago, Tami and I were sitting in the living room watching TV. Tami happened to look out of the window that was above the television set. She pointed out the window and yelled, “BEAR!” We both jumped up to get a better look at him. He was walking on the hill right behind the cabin, only about 25-30 feet away.

Then this past Saturday, I was at work when I got a call from Tami. The bear was back. It was walking down the hill between our cabin and our neighbor’s. It was just starting to get dark out and our dog, Lucky was laying in the driveway out of sight of the bear. Tami noticed it while she was doing dishes, so she ran out and snapped a couple of pictures, then she called Lucky into the house. That seemed to scare the bear away—for the time being.

Sunday morning, we were leaving the cabin to head to church. That’s when we noticed something was wrong. We had been storing some dry dog food in plastic buckets on the porch. Tami had previously taken them all inside, but one was inadvertently left on the porch along with some empty buckets that had contained the dry dog food. When we came out to go to church, there was a small pile of dog food in the driveway, only a couple of feet from the steps to the porch. There was also an empty plastic bucket on one of the stairs.

After getting home from church, we took a walk up the hill to check the trail cam. On the way, we found five of our missing buckets spread all over the hillside. All had punctures from teeth marks. Four of them had been empty, but one had been full of dog food. Each bucket was in a different spot on the hill and had its lid lying next to it. The bear must have made five different trips to our porch, walking away with empty buckets (that probably still smelled like dog food) four of the times; finally, hitting the jackpot when he found the full bucket.

So, I brought the trail cam down and set it up so that it overlooked our porch. I wanted to see if he would come back Sunday night to look for something else to eat. He did. Below are the pictures.

We may have to contact the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife, and Parks to report the bear, but I don’t want to do that. It’s our fault for attracting him in the first place. We should have been more careful not to leave anything outside that could be considered a free meal. We’ve gone over the property now to make sure there is nothing for him to snack on. I’m hoping that after he realizes there is nothing left, he will stop visiting. Until then, we are keeping the outside lights on and the shotgun handy. I hear that a backside full of birdshot is a pretty good deterrent.

(SDG)