Preventing or discouraging wild animals in your yard; bears included

Regular readers know we've had a deer carcass in the winter. The wolf and the coyote ate it and cleaned it up, which I documented every day (Fed. 20 - March 10th). I saw the wolf chase a deer into our yard, she seemed to feel safe here. [I saw a wolf in our back forty!] Normal wolves and bears do not approach humans. Bear attacks are infrequent, but they do happen.
Coyotes and foxes are a lot less afraid! This is why they train people, like my daughter who does field work, how to act react when you encounter them.

Don't feed them!

We had a bear amble by while we were eating dinner last April! There was a bear attack, when we lived in Muskoka in 2010. They are very rare and they usually avoid humans. In all my forest walks I'd never seen one either here, in Lanark County, or in Muskoka. You just have to act like a human, they tell us. You should be bear wise in Canada.

Don't do what these people did in Coquitlam: casually watch it, then go after it with a stick:

http://youtu.be/JaCsQCW7GXU

I've written about our backyard bear, which visited only once, since the scattered bird seed, under the feeder, had been cleaned up by our wild turkeys!

Good article: Co-existing...

Co-existing with wild animals

The most important principle in avoiding conflicts with coyotes is to prevent them from finding access to easy food sources. Coyotes are opportunistic feeders that hunt birds, small mammals, amphibians and grasshoppers, eat carrion (dead animals), and also consume fruits and vegetables. Around human settlements, coyotes are usually shy and non-confrontational, but they will treat garbage, compost, garden vegetables and fruits (including berries), pet food, pets, poultry and small livestock as food sources, if they see them as an easy meal.

• Always secure pet food, garbage and compost in containers with locking lids and store them in an enclosed structure. 
• Keep your BBQs clean.
• Make garbage and compost inaccessible to wildlife: 
  
  
  • Use heavy garbage cans with locking lids
  • Fasten lids with bungee cords
  • Put garbage out the morning of pick-up, not overnight
  • Never discard meat, dairy or egg products in compost piles.
• Use motion-sensitive floodlights to startle and scare away wildlife
• Keep pet doors locked at night
• Do not leave pet food outside overnight
• Keep BBQ grills clean and close BBQ lids after use
• Close your doors, screens won't keep them out
• Clean up animal feces (coyotes are attracted to it!).
• Protect vegetable gardens with heavy-duty fencing, or grow vegetables in a greenhouse.
• Pick fruit as soon as it is ripe.
• Remove fruit windfall from the ground. 
• Be aware that bird feeders bring birds, large and small mammals, such as squirrels (i.e. prey) to your yard.

1. Bear kills Suncor worker north of Fort McMurray

   Calgary Herald ‎- 3 days ago

   A female Suncor worker is dead after being attacked by a black bear Wednesday afternoon at a work ... 

2. An oilsands worker was killed by a black bear at a Suncor base north of Fort McMurray in northeastern Alberta. The adult male bear was later put down.

   By Erika Stark, CalgaryHerald May 8, 2014 11:28 AM.

Why I want my government involved!

There is much signage in our riding, "Back off government" capital of Ontario.

I want to show you the reasons why I want my government to have rules and regulations for land use, pollution, clear-cutting, and the like.

Fire ban: March - May 15

Fire ban is off now.

Here is one reason for government intervention

Beautiful osprey

The osprey were decimated due to habitat loss and pollution. They eat fish, and they at the top of the aquatic food cycle. In the 60s and 70s, birds like this were increasingly unable to reproduce due to humans. They were the canaries in the mine, showing us the error of our ways.

Thankfully, they are on the increase.

Phoebe is nesting in our tree house!

Juvenile European Starling spotted by the mailbox!
Brought to Canada from Europe,
more  of man's inhumanity towards nature.

Here are more reasons why I want nature to be protected!

The Ontario government, after the last budget, has directed the MNR to cut $50 million over the next three years. This will have an impact on many programs, such as Bear Wise.

My Gravenhurst bear sighting

The onus will fall to police, and not prevention or transport of bears.

Cottage Country Now reports:

MUSKOKA-PARRY SOUND - <SNIP>

Communities with bear technicians, according to the Ontario Public Service Employees Union, are being reduced from 25 to 15 with most of those being reduced to one technician.

The Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) is reducing by more than half the number of bear technicians it employs under its Bear Wise Program, reducing staff from 48 to 21 across the province.

Bears - be wise

Bears do not USUALLY attack people, but it is unusual. Black bear attacks are extremely rare — since 2000, there have been two fatal incidents involving black bears in British Columbia.

One Muskoka resident had been feeding raccoons, and shot a small bear at the feeding station. Bear Wise tells us to put away all bird feeders in summer.
IN AN IMMEDIATE EMERGENCY in Ontario: contact your local police force or dial 911

TO REPORT BEAR PROBLEMS: contact the Bear Reporting Line at:
1-866-514-BEAR (2327) (TTY) 705 945-7641

• Make garbage and composting inaccessible to wildlife: 
  
  
  • Use heavy garbage cans with locking lids
  • Fasten lids with bungee cords
  • Put garbage out the morning of pick-up, not overnight
• Use motion-sensitive floodlights to startle and scare away wildlife
• Keep pet doors locked at night
• Do not leave pet food outside overnight
• Keep BBQ grills clean and close BBQ lids after use
• Close your doors, screens won't keep them out

Bears - be wise

Bears do not USUALLY attack people, but it is unusual. Black bear attacks are extremely rare — since 2000, there have been two fatal incidents involving black bears in British Columbia.

One Muskoka resident had been feeding raccoons, and shot a small bear at the feeding station. Bear Wise tells us to put away all bird feeders in summer.
IN AN IMMEDIATE EMERGENCY in Ontario: contact your local police force or dial 911

TO REPORT BEAR PROBLEMS: contact the Bear Reporting Line at:
1-866-514-BEAR (2327) (TTY) 705 945-7641

• Make garbage and composting inaccessible to wildlife: 
  
  
  • Use heavy garbage cans with locking lids
  • Fasten lids with bungee cords
  • Put garbage out the morning of pick-up, not overnight
• Use motion-sensitive floodlights to startle and scare away wildlife
• Keep pet doors locked at night
• Do not leave pet food outside overnight
• Keep BBQ grills clean and close BBQ lids after use
• Close your doors, screens won't keep them out

B.C. man walked nearly a kilometre for help after grizzly attack
Bleeding from severe cuts and puncture wounds, his arm broken, Johnny Johnson walked nearly a kilometre to find help after being attacked by a grizzly bear on Monday on British Columbia’s remote central coast. It was the second incident in B.C. in a week involving bears.

Map of Canadian bear attacks

Woman in bear attack likely alive during mauling

4 bear necropsies completed

Officials say a woman whose fed-upon remains were found near Lillooet, B.C., on Thursday appears to have been alive at some point during a bear attack.

Officials say scat, tracks, bite marks and hair found at the scene indicate a black bear fed upon a woman's remains.

Before you get your knickers in a knot, this is not TOTALLY abnormal behaviour, but it is HIGHLY unusual. With its 8 million park visitors, Algonquin has only seen two such attacks. It is the far end of the scale for a bear to actually EAT humans, let alone attack them. But while we incarcerate such humans, it is still on the 'normal' end of the scale for bears. They eat a wide variety of food in the wild. Most bear sightings are uneventful. You simply act like a human and they take off, if you don't get between them and cubs and don't surprise them. If they come after you it is not normal, and these :2010 Muskoka bear attacks, are not normal.

B.C. woman's remains seemingly eaten by bear

4 bears in area killed as precaution

Bear crossed the road in front of us near Gravenhurst.

Bears that feed on human remains are more dangerous. In remote locations where there are berries, water, and good habitat, you must be careful. Act like a human, be loud, talk. Most will avoid you. If they don't then you know they are dangerous, either protecting their young, or they have a taste for humans.

This woman, whose name has not been released, had complained to police about bears on her remote, isolated property several weeks before her death. 

There is evidence a bear tried to enter her home or cause damage to the outside of her house.
Some are shocked that all 4 were killed, but they are very dangerous once they taste human flesh.

Man's inhumanity towards nature.

B.C. 'pot bears' shot after demanding food from residents

A Christina Lake man has been charged with feeding dangerous wildlife, an offence under the Wildlife Act that can lead to a fine of up to 100-thousand dollars, a 12-month jail term, or both.

Two of several black bears near Christina Lake have been shot after continuing to demand food from area residents.

Conservation officers say the bears are among 30 bruins that were trained to eat dog food and hang around a rural Christina Lake property in southern B.C., while protecting this dude's marijuana crop.

They tried to rehabilitate them:

• ☛B.C. 'pot bears' learning how to feed themselves
• ☛B.C. devises plan to get grow-op bears to return to the wild
• ☛B.C. man charged over bears guarding alleged grow-op