Maybe you’ve seen one around--it wouldn’t be surprising. It’s the season in Virginia for nuisance bear activity, as WMRA’s Christopher Clymer Kurtz reports.
Rockingham County resident Charlie Grady said that this spring he found himself getting out of bed three times a night to run off a cub and its mother bear, which liked his bird feeders but then moved on to chickens and poultry feed.
CHARLIE GRADY: Oh well. Life in the country.
Grady, who lives near Keezletown, thinks that the bear population is increasing, possibly due to hunting policy changes and practices. But Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries wildlife biologist David Kocka says that while Rockingham County has a lot of bears and usually accounts for 7-10% of the state bear harvest each year, this year’s volume of calls about nuisance bears is not significantly greater than in other years.
While the summer berry crop is still developing, Kocka advises people to secure food sources.
DAVID KOCKA: It’s a big stomach attached to a big nose. Bears don't have a collar bone, and if they can get their head in something they can get their body in there. They're great at contorting their bodies. They're not there just trying to sit around and watch us, or chase our children or anything else, they're coming around typically looking for free food and if they can't access that, then they will move on.
Grady’s neighbor Jason Myers-Benner knows the bears just want food, but became especially concerned after the bear tried to break into the shed where he keeps his poultry feed because the next day his daughter was the first one to the shed, when she went out to feed her ducks.
JASON MYERS-BENNER: We were one little piece of aluminum away from a mama bear with a cub being the first thing that she saw when she opened that shed door in the morning. We were a little alarmed.