Small Black Bear

[airboy]

My wife and I saw a small black bear in a national forest this morning crossing a road.  First time I've seen a bear in the wild East of the Mississippi.  They are becoming more common as population concentrates in cities and other areas lose population.

[bobarossa]

I've read stories where they said so many people have avoided parks that the animals are all coming out of the woodswork.

[steve58]

They are fairly common in my neck of the woods (northern Virginia) though I've only actually laid eyes on one once.  My late next door neighbor told me he once spotted one right near his garage.

Many years ago I did see something run across my back yard along a fence.  Was not a bear, nor any domestic-type animal.  I'd almost swear it was a bobcat, but they are not common in my area.  Might have been a chupacabra 

[airboy]

They are fairly common in my neck of the woods (northern Virginia) though I've only actually laid eyes on one once.  My late next door neighbor told me he once spotted one right near his garage.

Many years ago I did see something run across my back yard along a fence.  Was not a bear, nor any domestic-type animal.  I'd almost swear it was a bobcat, but they are not common in my area.  Might have been a chupacabra 

I've seen bobcats in Alabama.  They are nocturnal and hard to spot.

[Gusington]

We have a family of one mama bear and three cubs that lives about 1000 feet from our house. Cubs are beautiful, mama is huge...must be pushing 400-500 pounds.

[steve58]

We have a family of one mama bear and three cubs that lives about 1000 feet from our house. Cubs are beautiful, mama is huge...must be pushing 400-500 pounds.

Neat.  Bet y'all don't take walks or the trash out after dark! 

[Gusington]

The mama has come very close to my wife while she has been out with the dog early in the morning. She always takes a bear horn since spray is not legal here. My older daughter has also been very close - within 25 feet. Mama makes herself known and has never threatened any of us or our one family of neighbors. Matter of fact I don’t know of anyone around here who has ever been mauled...not even the stupid day trippers from city. The bears are very well behaved, for now. About a year ago I was leaving for work around 6am and mama was at the end of my driveway...she saw the car and just turned around and left.

[JasonPratt]

Bears can be well behaved; black bear attacks are especially rare, but you still wouldn't want to push them. Also, blacks can get inside houses rather easily, so...

Supposedly, there's at least one bear, and maybe a legitimate wolfpack, in the Land Between the Lakes now (which together no doubt help foster the notion of a dogman pack in there.  ) That's western KY just north of West TN.

Here in West TN, no bear tales (or tails!) yet, even unofficially, but we've had cougar back for at least ten years, maybe fifteen -- officially a dead cougar on the road doesn't count (thus the delay), but then officially some gamecam footage was acknowledged about ten miles north of where I'm sitting, a couple of years ago. (The guy who owns the local eatery also vouches for one that lived in his woodpile for a while some more years ago, but he never got any direct evidence.)

If the cougars are back, it's only a matter of time before the bears expand over, too.

[Gusington]

We have some kind of wild cats here too...my in laws and their Rottie were stalked by one (mountain cat? Not sure what to call it) on some trails a few miles from my deck. They are extra creepy because they make no noise, they just watch and wait. We have coyotes too. My neighbor took a super super creepy pic a few weeks ago - he was hiking literally about 1000 feet from our house when his dog got spooked. They didn’t see anything at the time but when they looked at their pictures later one showed a lone coyote about 200 feet from them, with a really evil sneer/grin on its face. It may have been rabid.

[JasonPratt]

I know for a visual fact, confirmed by some other close friend and family eyewitnesses, that the coyotes around here have basically leveled up to wolves now. 200 lbs easily, feet as big as mine (comparing if I'm standing on my front 'pads'.)

[Gusington]

200 pounds??

[JasonPratt]

I'm 200+ lbs in full winter garb, and they make more of a press into 1/4" of hard ice than I do. Granting that my feet spread the weight out more than theirs do, that suggests equivalent mass effects. Visual sightings of them (at least twice by me, not counting others) confirm they look like dang mastiffs, big heavy shoulders, not too far from Great Dane size but denser looking. King Shepherd size and density at least.

This is probably due to interbreeding for decades around here, with local dog packs, so they're coydogs.

Admittedly, I was super-surprised to see such heavy prints in ice. I fully allow I could be overestimating their weight. But I would not be slightly surprised if some shot (or captured) specimens weighed in around 200.

[Gusington]

I was going to say, they have to be hybrids of some kind. The coyotes around here are typically 50-60 pounds.

[JasonPratt]

I was going to say, they have to be hybrids of some kind. The coyotes around here are typically 50-60 pounds.

For that matter, Grey Wolves (the archetypal canis lupus lupus) tend to average 90 lbs, but that depends on a bunch of factors of course.

[Gusington]

Never seen a wolf around here - as far as I know there haven’t been any east of the Mississippi in over 100 years.