TodayHopewell Township family encounters black bear in backyard
Print
Share
Email to a friend
Add This
Feeds
Local News
Article RatingDon and Glenda Walker got quite a surprise as they prepared for supper one night in late October, and the excitement was no Halloween prank.
“We have this big picture window,” said Don. “We just sat down to eat, and Glenda looked out and said, ‘There’s a bear!’ It’s odd to look out your window and see a black bear.”
Glenda noted the time — 6:12 p.m. Oct. 20 — and her husband estimated that the bear weighed about 300 pounds.
“It was definitely not a cub,” he said.
The Walkers, who live on North Harmon Road in Hopewell Township, watched as the bear moved silently through their back yard. It was just 75 to 80 feet from their house before meandering away when Don tried to take a picture.
“He didn’t run,” said Don. “He just walked away toward the mountains ... He didn’t stick around. I wanted to get a picture, because no one believes you when you say you saw a bear.”
Although the Walkers have never before seen a bear in their yard, they suspect it isn’t the first time the animal has visited the area.
Evidence
“Our garbage bags have been torn up,” said Don. “We always thought it was a dog, but usually a small animal will tear a small hole and get what they want. But these garbage bags were destroyed.”
Also, a neighbor saw large mud tracks at his home in September, and more recently, another neighbor captured an obscure picture of an animal resembling a bear on his game cam.
Coons and herons
The Walkers joke that the excitement didn’t end when the bear left their yard. Later that night, Glenda opened the back door onto their deck and found a very large raccoon — as big as a small beagle — eating their cat’s food.
The week before, a blue heron also paid a visit to the Walker home and ate 15 of the 22 goldfish in their pond.
“Those fish were big,” said Don. “They were all eight to 10 inches. They’d been there for five years.”
The blue heron also snatched a fantail fish from the Walkers’ pond.
He added, “It’s boring around here for days and days, and then it gets exciting.”
The Walkers have since put a tarp over their pond, and while they don’t think the bear is particularly dangerous, they keep an eye out for the animal and carry a flashlight when going out at night.
“We’ve been watching every night to see if he’ll come back,” said Don.
“We want him to come back so we can get a picture, and then never come back again,” laughed Glenda.
