Sweet Success For Black Bear

By Nancy K. Crevier

Honey, it seems, is a bear magnet. Remember Winnie the Pooh’s adventure persuading bees that he was just a little black rain cloud in order to procure honey from the honey tree?

The black bear that has been visiting the Patriot Ridge residence of Kathy and Mike Nowak does not go to such lengths as Winnie the Pooh, but he (or she?) is quite determined to sample the honey from their two hives.

The first visit occurred about two weeks ago, said Ms Nowak. “It was after a big storm that we noticed the hives were knocked down, but we didn’t think it was a bear.” A week later, though, as dusk settled over their property, they spotted a bear rooting around the hives. “He knocked them over and just pulled them apart,” Ms Nowak said. The next night, the bear returned, and despite huge trucking straps Mr Nowak had bound about the hives and despite the fact that the straps were staked into the ground, they watched as the bear nonchalantly took the hives apart again.

The Nowaks were able to photograph the bear from a distance of only 20 feet or so, as Ms Nowak balanced the camera on the back of their truck and spotlights glared down on the subject. “The bear was not at all bothered by us. He barely seemed to care,” commented Ms Nowak.

The bees, however, were extremely upset as the bear ravaged their honey stores. “We thought at first that the bear was carting off the honey frames to get away from the bees, but then we saw him just licking away at the frames and he didn’t seem to be bothered by the bees.”

As interesting as it was to observe one of New England’s largest land mammals in their own backyard, the Nowaks decided they had had enough of the hive destruction. They rebuilt the two-tier hives and took measures to make sure the bear would stay away.

The Department of Environmental Protection can come in and move a bear, but only if property owners have taken steps to make sure any attractions have been made inaccessible to other bears. In this case, the attractive nuisance was the honey.

“We didn’t have the bear removed,” said Ms Nowak, “but we have installed a battery-operated electric fence around the hives. It’s not real powerful, but it is supposed to be enough to keep away the bear.”