A quiet night at home.
That’s how Jason Enos, whose Germantown, Maryland, home backs up to Black Hill Regional Park, described the evening in May when his wife Sara happened to glance up from her book and tell him, “There’s a bear on the deck!”
They turned off their indoor lights and Enos grabbed his camera to try to capture the moment from inside their house.
“As much as both of us would have enjoyed giving him a scratch on the head and rubbing his fuzzy little ears, we know better than that,” he told 草莓传媒.
As , Enos worked fast to get as many photos as he could 鈥� he’s a wildlife photography enthusiast.
He and Sara then wondered how they could discourage the bear from getting too comfortable.
“It was exciting, it was certainly memorable,” he said. But “we both knew immediately, of course, it’s not a good thing for a bear to be a floor up off the ground on our deck.”
So he turned the latch on the glass door to the deck 鈥� a sound he hoped would let the bear know that humans were nearby.
It worked. The bear ambled off the deck and off the property.
Their instincts were correct, said Jonathan Trudeau, the game mammal section leader for the .
When bears come that close to a home, making enough noise to let them know a human is nearby will likely send them on their way.
“If you have a, you know, video doorbell where you can talk through your doorbell,” that can allow humans to keep their distance, while letting the bear know they should move along.
Trudeau said the key is alerting the bear, without alarming the bear.
“If you’re close, you don’t want to startle that bear, because it will trigger that flight or fight reflex,” Trudeau said. “Most times, they’re going to have that flight response.”
Homeowners might be startled to find bears so close to their homes, especially in the close-in suburbs surrounding D.C.
“Mid-May is about the time we expect to see bears starting to move,” Trudeau said. “Everyone’s out of their den at that point, so everyone’s out and looking for food.”
There is research on the movements of bears in Maryland, Trudeau said. It’s being done with cooperation between the University of Maryland and Maryland’s Department of Natural Resources.
Enos said he believes he knows what drew the young bear to his deck.
“I’m sure it was probably because I neglected to bring in my birdfeeders that night,” including one packed with suet 鈥� designed to attract woodpeckers, but also very appetizing to bears.
Trudeau said residents should “completely remove your birdfeeders this time of year.” He suggested taking in birdfeeders until November or December, when birds need the food and bears are napping.
Enos also posted some of the photos he got of the bear on a neighborhood list serve to let his neighbors know there is a bear in the area. And he had advice for them: “We don’t want to attract them to our houses as much fun as it is to see them. It’s not the best environment for the animal to be in.”
Trudeau said if you see a bear in your neighborhood in Maryland, you can . If it’s outside business hours and you have concerns about a bear, especially if it’s safety related, you can contact the .
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