Bears are back in town
To the editor:
Some of our local birders might like to be informed that we have bears in Caribou again. A short while ago I was told that the bears that repeatedly tore down our bird feeders for about three years in a row finally had been trapped and relocated. It seemed plausible, because for the past two years we hadn’t been bothered.
But a couple of days ago, I was mystified to find our back yard feeders on the ground and one of them broken. The strong wire between the house and tool shed from which the feeders were suspended had a clean break a few inches from one end, and I was inclined to ascribe the failure to metal fatigue. But at 4 a.m. I happened to see the motion-sensor lights come on in our back yard, and looking from our bedroom window I was astonished to see a large, full-grown black bear standing erect and licking sunflower seeds from a bird feeder at least six feet above the ground, and only about 15 feet from the house. Raising the window and yelling at the bear had no effect, and I finally got its attention and ran it off by stinging it with a BB gun.
When I called the police dispatcher to report it, I was told they’d had no other reports of bears in town so far this year. I was also told that to his knowledge no one had trapped the bears that were here before.
So someone may be telling tales that just aren’t based on fact, and maybe it’s time we started a campaign to get some action from wildlife authorities. A call to the Ashland headquarters of the Maine Inland Fisheries and Wildlife department produced only a recording that said they only work from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays.
Maybe the biologists and wardens we pay to protect wildlife and keep it under control need to be awakened to the fact that wildlife takes no weekends or holidays off. Sometimes we and our property need protection as well as the bears — and not just during executive office hours!
Carroll B. Knox
Caribou
