Bearly a moment’s rest: Bear makes presence known

By P.J. Gossett

Alabama is known for many things. There’s football, musicians, actors and the big cities like Huntsville and Birmingham. It’s known for great food, such as barbecue, too. One thing it’s not known for is bears. They are around though, and I can prove it.
On Sept. 2, my aunt, who lives across the road from me in Double Springs, gave me a call. Our neighbor had notified us of a bear being caught on a trail camera near our property, and others had been seeing the bear as well. Earlier this year, we had heard there were bears in Winston County, and we’ve always heard they just pass through.
Sept. 3, one night later, chaos reigned. At 9:55 p.m., my aunt called me in hysterics, saying a bear was on her porch. She had called 9-1-1 before me, so I arrived mere moments before a sheriff’s deputy did. By then, the game warden was on the phone with my aunt.
The deputy patrolled the yard in his vehicle and had the lights and siren on to deter the bear away from the area.
My aunt then explained how she met the bear. She was sitting on the couch when she heard a bump on the porch. She ignored it, but in a few minutes, her doorknob rattled. She thought I was using my keys to come in, but it wasn’t me. After I didn’t come in the house, and after she called my name several times with no answer, she investigated. When she pulled the curtain back on the front door window, she saw the bear sitting about five feet away on the porch.
“It was sitting there playing with its feet,” she said.
She was told to make noise to scare the bear away if she encountered it again.
After things calmed down, somewhat, and no other sign of the bear had been discovered, I went back home. Shortly, I thought about checking my security cameras. The bear was captured on two different cameras, casually walking by my house, between my car and house and then continued through the yard to cross the road, heading in the direction of my aunt’s house. This was exactly 30 minutes before she called me.
Thankfully, the bear hasn’t been sighted again. With luck, perhaps it’s no longer in our area.
The security video was added online to Facebook, and many are sharing the video to help get the word out in our neighborhood to be on the lookout. Some of the comments are from my forest service contacts while I was a staff writer at the Northwest Alabamian.
Black bears were once known to be in Alabama, historically. The numbers have dwindled, but due to conservation efforts, the bears are making a comeback, according to a flyer shared with me after the post. The flyer itself advertised a public seminar last month on “Living With Black Bears.”
With all the other critters and creatures we Alabamians deal with, it looks like we will need to add one more to the list.