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Posaune

sliding
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This is at Heather Meadows, just next to the Mt. Baker Ski Area:

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luliski

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I can kind of see the fat raccoon outline in the earlier photos. It looks like the coyote is pacing back and forth in front of the raccoon, if it's the same coyote in all the frames.
 

karlo

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KingGrump

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Yup that is one fat raccoon.

Lighten up the shots a bit.
It looked pretty leery of the coyote. Keep an eye on it through out. Don't think the coyote wants to work that hard for dinner.
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Doug Briggs

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There are lots of these around the neighborhood lately.

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That is my neighbor's hand. The same day he posted this, there were reports by 2 other people about prints elsewhere in the neighborhood.

I've opened my back door at night and seen a bear walking by in the alley. I'm glad I have a 54" fence because if he got into the back yard with that, I'd have heard him. They've tried twice over the years.
 

Tricia

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So, this fella shows up just about closing time at the shop.
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Mind you, we've asked the property owners to get bear proof garbage cans, but.....
Then he showed up today to hang out and see if there was new food to be had.

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SSSdave

life is short precious ...don't waste it
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Don't have a picture or video, but last week at late dusk in Mono County while on a fall leaf road trip, very distinctly heard a rare growling cat for about a couple minutes that was less than 150 yards away probably on a rock outcrop. Then about 10 minutes later it started growling again for a shorter period. At the time I was parked beside a dirt road at 7800 feet dispersed camping about to go to sleep in the back bed of my Forester. I suspect it was a bobcat though may have been a mountain lion. A bobcat being smaller has more opportunity to end up facing other critters like coyotes, bears, or raccoons it might stand off growling at and in fact they are known to be feisty creatures.

Although I've extensively backpacked and hiked in the range over decades, and have visually come across both bobcat and mountain lions, it was the first time I'd ever heard growling. At the time I kept unsuccessfully fumbling about in the dark for my moto g smartphone that was in a foot square plastic box beside me along with a whole bunch of other small stuff. If I had found the moto g, I would have turned on my Smart Recorder app and recorded the audio. There was no light on inside my car and I didn't want to scare the cat by say turning on the ceiling dome light.
 

luliski

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So, this fella shows up just about closing time at the shop.
View attachment 56282
Mind you, we've asked the property owners to get bear proof garbage cans, but.....
Then he showed up today to hang out and see if there was new food to be had.

View attachment 56283
Yes, they need those bear proof cans. There are some neighborhoods in Tahoe where people have multiple break ins to their homes and end up having to get electric fencing around any possible entry to their homes. The bears just keep going back once they have easy access to food, as you know.
 

Tricia

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Yes, they need those bear proof cans. There are some neighborhoods in Tahoe where people have multiple break ins to their homes and end up having to get electric fencing around any possible entry to their homes. The bears just keep going back once they have easy access to food, as you know.
@Jasmine had to do that to her house at Squaw.
 

4ster

Just because you can doesn’t mean you should!
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Yes, they need those bear proof cans. There are some neighborhoods in Tahoe where people have multiple break ins to their homes and end up having to get electric fencing around any possible entry to their homes. The bears just keep going back once they have easy access to food, as you know.

@Jasmine had to do that to her house at Squaw.

Since we are on the topic, Tahoe bears are a serious issue. Once they get humanized there is not a lot that can be done. In Nevada repeat offenders will be euthanized :( . The only solution is to bear proof everything. They did this in Mammoth and it seemed to work pretty well for awhile. While speaking with someone this past spring she said now the Bears have learned how to open bear proof cans. They are evolving!
The Bears weren’t always a problem in Tahoe, in fact when I was growing up there were no bears in town. They began showing up in the late 80s & were about half the size they are now.

Came upon this mama and her cubs during the summer…
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luliski

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Since we are on the topic, Tahoe bears are a serious issue. Once they get humanized there is not a lot that can be done. In Nevada repeat offenders will be euthanized :( . The only solution is to bear proof everything. They did this in Mammoth and it seemed to work pretty well for awhile. While speaking with someone this past spring she said now the Bears have learned how to open bear proof cans. They are evolving!
The Bears weren’t always a problem in Tahoe, in fact when I was growing up there were no bears in town. They began showing up in the late 80s & were about half the size they are now.

Came upon this mama and her cubs during the summer…
View attachment 56307
So what happened in the late 80s? Was there an increase in development? Is it because so many people are part-time residents and leave food in their fridges? The bears seem to have no problem breaking in to houses or cars.
 

4ster

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So what happened in the late 80s? Was there an increase in development? Is it because so many people are part-time residents and leave food in their fridges? The bears seem to have no problem breaking in to houses or cars.
My own personal theory is that they migrated into the Tahoe basin after Mammoth and Yosemite began making it difficult for them.
People will claim that they were always here but believe me there were no bears, at least in SLT during the 60s and 70s along with most of the 80s. Up until then people left their garbage cans outside and unsecured, the worst that would happen was the occasional raccoon getting in the garbage or maybe a coyote once in a while but no bears. The first one I saw around my place weighed about 250 pounds, now they appear to be up to 500lbs. Certainly there were bears here in the old days but the original white settlers wiped them out. The bears that are in the basin now are not the original Tahoe bears. In fact, I would speculate that there DNA is different.


About 10 years ago our old family cabin in SLT was broken into by a bear, he returned the next morning & I got to know him up close. The bear had been tagged and was well known by the Bear league and fish and game. The Bears name was George and was about 20 years old. They said he had migrated from Nevada about three years earlier and was being monitored.

More Tahoe Bears
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SSSdave

life is short precious ...don't waste it
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I've extensively hiked and backpacked in the Sierra 4+ decades. The reason black bears began appearing in mountain towns was that in earlier times they were regularly shot. In that era some of those employed on horse packing services would have DF&G bear hunting tags and would shoot them if they bothered their clients at usual trail side packer campsites and then enjoy a bear rug. And likewise the general cultural vibe about urban areas for gun enthusiasts was annoyance bears also made good bear rugs. By the 80s the environmental movement was well underway and that included newer appreciation of our wild animals that made shooting bears unpopular. That of course was also the beginning of bear proof food containers for backpackers and campground food lockers.
 

luliski

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https://www.wildlife.ca.gov/conservation/mammals/black-bear/biology#311311065-description
This link contains some interesting facts about black bears. I wasn't aware of some of their physiology: for example the female bear can carry an embryo (maybe it's called a zygote at this point?) in her womb for months before it implants. Also, they lose a tremendous amount of weight during hibernation, but do not lose muscle mass; and they also regenerate bone during hibernation.

A friend said that it's thought that bears in Tahoe are no longer hibernating, because they have a food source in the winter now (human food). Maybe that's why they're getting so big!
 
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luliski

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I've extensively hiked and backpacked in the Sierra 4+ decades. The reason black bears began appearing in mountain towns was that in earlier times they were regularly shot. In that era some of those employed on horse packing services would have DF&G bear hunting tags and would shoot them if they bothered their clients at usual trail side packer campsites and then enjoy a bear rug. And likewise the general cultural vibe about urban areas for gun enthusiasts was annoyance bears also made good bear rugs. By the 80s the environmental movement was well underway and that included newer appreciation of our wild animals that made shooting bears unpopular. That of course was also the beginning of bear proof food containers for backpackers and campground food lockers.

Not that I like that they were shot.
 

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