Bear Takes Bath in Midwest Family’s Backyard, Eats Bird Feeder
When you live in bear country, you never know what you're gonna witness in your backyard. One Midwest family learned this the hard way when they captured video of a bear taking a bath just prior to him eating their bird feeder.
Based on the video description, this happened in Scandia, Minnesota. Here's what the family said about what they witnessed:
I live in a rural area. We have a black bear population. I have a gazing pond in my yard. It's the only freshwater around so I get a lot of visitors. This is one of them. It was around midday. It was a hot day so we weren't surprised by the bath. This bear is a regular visitor here. We have other videos. This bear steals the hummingbird's food!
The bear looks like he's having a grand time. Bath and meal for the win.
For what it's worth, it's not a great idea to have bird feeders out (or any other food sources outside) if you live where bears do. The National Park Service warns about any kind of food outside that is not in a bear-proof container. As they state, a bear's sense of smell is at least 7 times more powerful than even a bloodhound. Impressive sniffer.
Bears like this that become comfortable around humans can quickly become dangerous for both people and the animals. Moments like this in a backyard are fun to watch, but the situation can get bad quickly.