I was not scaring a cat with that Scat! John and I found two little piles in the garden and saw some big footprints in one of the beds. I jumped to the conclusion it was bear scat. There have been two sightings of a black bear in our neighborhood in the last two weeks, so there was a basis for my hypothesis. Bing images had lots of photos of bear scat, this being the one most like ours.
Son John $ and friend Rose said the pooh piles did not look like ones they’ve seen hiking, but they agreed the appearance would be affected by what the animal had eaten.
What do you think? Have we been visited by a bear?
I thought of the most famous bear I know – Pooh Bear. Instead, I wrote about bear pooh.
I can help you on this one as we don’t have bears in our area. Personally I would just proceed with caution.
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We don’t think we’re likely to see the bear, but we do try to be aware of our surroundings when we walk. My camera wants to shoot that bear!
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Bear photos would be cool. Perhaps with a zoom lens. HaHa. By the way “Bear Pooh” is funny.
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I hope I have enough sense to keep a sturdy wall between me and a bear. Thanks for laughing with me.
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If you look up bear scat online, it does appear you have bear scat. It varies from looking like human feces to cow pile, from what I found that is. Soooooo, there’s a good chance it’s bear.
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Thanks for your vote of confidence.
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BTW, the many pictures are fairly gross and your son is correct, it depends on what they forage.
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Well this one is ‘one for the books’ .
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Never thought I’d see pooh on your site but then again, why not! I’ll wait for the pictures of the actual bear!
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I THINKI want to see the bear, but not if it is tearing up the screened porch.
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Seeing from a distance would be good. I understand that they aren’t aggressive unless you appear as a threat. Can’t believe any living creature would view you as a threat! 🙂
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Sadly, I agree with you that no one would view me as a threat. I needed lots of clout when the children were little, and I didn’t have it.
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You are the kind of person people do things for because they like them. Not because you strong arm them. All good.
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Thank you, Kate. I wouldn’t be good at strong-arming anyone.
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Sure looks like it to me, but I would trust $ to be the expert he is on it. Back in the day, one of our kids had Winnie-the-Pooh underwear while we were in the potty training phase. Big mistake. Led to sooooo much confusion.
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LOL! Potty confessions! What next?
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Whatever it is Anne…it looks big to me. Yikes!
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Neighbors think the bear they saw weighed about 200 pounds. I’m not going to wrestle it!
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I took a deep breath as I read the description of your garden friend. I hope you only get a glimpse of it from behind a windowpane.
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What’s the joke about camping and a bear? Something about all that matters is that you can run faster than the slowest person. I hope it’s not a bear. That seems scary to me.
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I don’t think I’m over-confident, but most folks are fine if they are cautious when bears have been sighted.
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We get lots of bears and I’ve never seen scar look like that!
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There were many variations on bear scat photos. I found one that seemed to match our little piles.
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Ok I guess our bears just eat more berries and fiber 🤣
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Another clever headline Anne and I was already thinking about Winnie the Pooh before you clarified when you said you were writing about bear pooh, not Pooh bear. I’ve never seen bear pooh so my question to you is to borrow from a famous line: “do you live near the woods?”
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I thought of you when I had a one-liner headline.
The Great Smoky Mountains National Park is across the valley and over a mountain from us. The area is blanketed with trees, although our house sits in a large clearing. This area was once a pig farm. One side of our house looks over a cow pasture, and the back faces the horse pasture.
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It was a great one-liner. It takes more effort to be clever with one word sometimes. Just be careful when you and John go on your morning walk and I’m glad you’re not near the woods. No walk for me today, tomorrow and maybe Sunday as well. We had light snow and overnight we are getting a wintry precip and supposed to be very slick tomorrow morning. And a little more snow for us – we got under an inch but it rained as well and washed away the snow, but tonight an inch of snow. They are getting 4-6 inches up North. This is in advance of an El Nino Winter? We’re getting more snow Monday into Tuesday.
My poor squirrels! My poor goal!!
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Snow! That’s rushing it, but I know Mother Nature isn’t going to listen to you. We missed our walk this morning and will again tomorrow, partly from weather and partly from having company.
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Company is acceptable for missing a walk – the weather is an ugly reminder of who is really in charge!
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When you find out who paid you a little visit, please don’t hand around for introductions Anne. Back away taking pics the whole time.
Bear Hugs xxx
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Sounds like good advice, David. I hope I take it.
xxx Ursa Major Hugs xxx
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eeek!
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YIKES! Better be careful out walking, in the yard and garden, etc. Sounds as it he might have been a bit sneaky if you didn’t hear him/her. It was kind of rude to use your garden as an outhouse, though. Oh, I love bears!
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I like bears at a distance, too.
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I wouldn’t take a chance-I think it is bear. Now do NOT go on any midnight strolls! and your witty trademark lines never fail to make me smile.
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If you are smiling, I am pleased.
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Scat’s barely a concern. Even so, bears can be cranky as they head for their winter naps. ❤
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I asked our son about hibernation, and he said the black bears do not hibernate here. They sleep a lot, but they wake up and go looking for food. That means we could have bear sightings until berries come out in the spring.
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So maybe Yogi and Boo Boo didn’t always nap either 😁
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‘Guess my play on words fell a bit flat. So, maybe Yogi and Boo Boo didn’t always nap either 😁
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I would have absolutely no idea Anne. Now ….. raccoon….that I could probably tell you.
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We had raccoons all the time in NY. Here in NC, we’ve seen one dead one.
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Anne .. . perhaps there is somewhere local to you that you could email the photo to, and they, with their bear knowledge, could confirm (or not) if your ‘found object’ (let’s keep it classy eh? lol), does or doesn’t belong to a bear.
Has anyone reported that there is a bear in the area? If it’s a bit unusual, then maybe it just needs the careful guidance of one who knows what he’s doing, to gently guide it back to a place where he/she should be.
Just a thought from me – who knows nothing about bears unless it’s, like you, Pooh Bear. 😀
~ Cobs. x
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There were two sightings of a bear in the neighborhood. The first was on the front porch of a house we pass on our morning walk. The other was one Logan saw. Logan was in his front yard and saw the bear in the back yard. The bear passed by the chicken coop and jumped on the dog kennel of the neighbors behind them. I think all anyone could do would be to scare the bear away. Guidance is up to God and the bear!
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It may be bear scat Anne. Take a stick & break it open to search for hairs.If it’s there it may not be bear.
Also look around for areas with mud to see if any tracks are in them.
Our bears right now have runny scat because of eating so much salmon.Whatever this is its not eating berries.Which it should be right now.
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I knew you would know more about bears than any of my other readers. We’ve been told that the mast is poor this year, so that might explain the lack of berries. Also, we probably wouldn’t see bears unless they were hungry.
We’ve had rain for days now, so I’m not going in the garden until things dry out. Thank you very much for your observations.
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Anne, how funny!
The only time my children ever saw me run was on a vacation hike in TN; baby bear was high in a tree but at trail level and mama bear was coming up towards the trail from below. I didn’t wait to see her up close and my kids still laugh about not knowing their mama could move that fast. I beat everyone to the car that day.
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Hooray for you! That was a smart run.
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