2015 Black Bear Pictures

Welcome to our 2015 black bear pictures.  Last year we had five sets of black bear pictures including thirty nine total pictures.  I didn't count how many feeders he destroyed, but it was several.  Black bear visits are going to influence our deer feeder placement and availability again this year.

The black bear took another week off and then showed up again on Tuesday evening right in the middle of rifle season.  He showed up at the old house location both walking past the feeder and then at our protein feed location.  We sat in our deer condo on Wednesday afternoon hoping he would show up again and in the daylight, but he didn't.  It would have been real interesting if he would have come to the protein feed right under the deer condo we were sitting in.

We saw the black bear in our last set of pictures after not seeing him for a while and he showed up again in this set of pictures from November 8th.

He's under the deer condo eating protein feed.  Can you imagine sitting in the deer condo while a black bear eats under you?  I'm thinking I'd be a little nervous.  We hope to see him next week during deer season.

In the next picture we caught him at a different location at protein feed again.  We saw him in three locations on this visit.

It had been over a month since our last black bear visit.  In that time we put more metal sheeting on our feeder trees to try to keep him from climbing them.  In the second picture it looks like the metal on the tree kept him from getting to the feeder.  The first picture shows him checking out the protein feed.  He didn't stick around long.

After a set of pictures without a black bear sighting he showed up again this time, but only at one feeder.  We're not sure how he got to the feeder but he didn't destroy it.  He seemed to be happy licking the corn from around the spinner.  He still hasn't visited the feeder in the hayfield where we hoped to get a look at him from the house.  He looks like he has a little white patch on his chest.  Take a look at the last picture.

This week the black bear visited two of the three feeders.  He pulled one of them down and for some reason tore down some limbs at the other but didn't pull it down.  We've added some galvanized metal to the trees these two feeders are hung from to try to keep him from climbing them.  We're just not sure if it was enough to keep him from climbing.  We'll know soon enough.  The good thing is that he seemed content to pull the feeder down far enough that he could lick the corn out.

One concern is the picture that shows him climbing past one of our cameras.  He could tear a camera up easily.

He hasn't visited the feeder in the field where we were hoping to get a look at him.

We hung three bucket feeders in three locations and watched them with cameras to see what would happen.  It didn't take long for the black bear to climb one of those trees.  He didn't spend much time up the tree, just long enough to bend the limb down to where he could reach the bucket from the ground. 

We got plenty of pictures of him on his visit.  He just hung around and seemed to like rubbing against the base of the tree.  He looked like he was rolling around enjoying himself.

Since we first put up a feeder two weeks ago the black bear has been a regular.  So far he has taken down three feeders, destroying two of them.  He just pulled down the feeder we put on a high grape vine, but  fortunately he didn't ruin the feeder in the process.  We've put it up even higher on a tree limb.  We've also hung two other bucket feeders from high tree limbs in two other locations and we're monitoring them with cameras to see what he will do.  He visited one on Wednesday evening but didn't try to get it down.  If he keeps hanging around I imagine we sooner or later get a look it him.

We got about 40 pictures of him and have picked out the best 20 to show you.  He even took the time to roll over on his back and give it a scratch.

I opened this camera and saw that this black bear was only a half an hour ahead of us.  As you can see it is thick in this area so you can imagine that Megan and I felt a little nervous.  I told Megan that he was probably across the hollow ravaging our feeders and the following pictures show that I was right.  This feeder had only been up for six days.  The feeder had a leg that was cracked and it may have fallen when he scratched his back on the other leg.

We arrived shortly after he knocked it over and he didn't get to eat much.

The black bear showed up again, this time not the evening we put the cameras back out.  He showed up in two places, both former feeder locations.  We'd like to put the feeders back out, but we don't want to let the bear keep destroying feeders.  These pictures aren't great, but we've added them for you to decide for yourself.

Once again the black bear showed up the evening after we set up our cameras.  It looks like he may hear us and come to see if we've left anything for him to eat.  We didn't get all of him in either picture, we missed his head in the first and we just got is top half in the second.

One week after our first black bear pictures of 2015 the bear showed up again.  Two hours and twenty minutes after Megan and I set up the cameras he came for a visit.

This first set of black bear pictures is from April and he visited and knocked over both of the feeders we had out.  He looks like a pretty big black bear in this set of pictures.  I'd like to see him............from a distance.

Take a look at our 2014 black bear pictures.