Levitating Bears and Bird Feeders

And I thought squirrels were a problem.

Suddenly and unexpectedly glad I live in the vanilla squirrel-burbs.

Where were those taken, Jellystone Park?

I must be one of the few lunatics left who wouldn't mind seeing a bear in the yard. From a safe distance, of course, and just once. It would go from novelty to nuisance pretty fast.

I'm amazed that the rope or feeder didn't break from the bear's weight.

I spent a long time crouching in a laurel thicket in an Appalachian black bear sanctuary, convinced that the rustling I heard was a black bear waiting to eat me. Turned out to be a yearling deer ~ ten feet away. I think that's what turned me into a Y-chromosome feminist . . .

Wow, that's amazing. Thanks for sharing!

It's a damn good ad for the rope company. :)

Great pictures! - got to admit, though, that the first thing that popped into my mind was: did Gary Larson ("The Far Side") take those?

Wow... the bear must be very light, or the rope must be very strong.

Personally I'd rather live in a city with neither squirrels nor bears, though.

My city has loads of squirrels - and really aggressive ones, too.

Living in Mammoth Lakes, California in the 1990s we had bears in the yard all the time. The little wildlife shop in town sold a block of seed called "Birdola" which we renamed "bearola" because the black bears just loved them and would figure out any configuration of ropes and pulleys meant to deter them. Never saw anything like these photos; that little girl (the bear isn't that big, maybe 175-200 lbs) is one great acrobat, but it doesn't surprise me. These are very bright, tenacious animals...and while certainly able to hurt you in some cases, they are mostly surprisingly tolerant and gentle.

I'm pretty sure that's just a cub and not a full grown bear, given the relative size of the bird feeder.

Any info on where the photos were taken?