Worried homeowner follows noises to find ‘massive’ bear had made a den in NC backyard
A worried homeowner thought an animal was in pain — then she made a “massive” discovery in her North Carolina backyard.
“I was sitting out on my back porch and heard this really sad whimper, like a sick animal or something,” Casey Vandergrift said in a video that was shared to Facebook on Monday, Dec. 12.
Vandergrift said she took a closer look and was surprised to come across “two giant eyeballs.” It turns out, the noise she heard over the weekend was coming from a bear that had made a den in the brush behind her home.
“He’s absolutely massive, snores at night, and is super unbothered by myself,” Vandergrift, who lives in the mountain town of Asheville, wrote in a Facebook post.
News about the sighting reached the organization Help Asheville Bears, and group founder Jody Williams took a look for himself.
“After seeing the bear (from a distance, so as to not disturb), Jody believed it to be possibly a female who may be denning up in early preparation for the colder weather to maybe give birth to cubs in January,” the group wrote on social media.
Vandergrift told the organization she’s keeping the den, which isn’t too close to her home. She said she was grateful the animal chose to live there.
“I’ve got a pretty unique piece of property right here ’cause pretty much everybody is on top of everybody,” the homeowner said in the video. “And when you get in my backyard, you kind of feel like you’re in a little oasis.”
Though Williams told McClatchy News it’s difficult to estimate the size of the bear without seeing it walk around, experts say females can weigh up to 300 pounds. Black bears, the only species living in North Carolina, usually are found in the western and eastern parts of the state.
“Bears put on additional weight in autumn to prepare for winter denning,” the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission wrote on its website. “They build dens in cavities of live trees, hollow logs, caves, rock outcroppings, cavities in the ground, or in a thicket.”
Bears typically enter their dens in the fall or winter before emerging a few months later. While bears often avoid humans, people who see them are urged to remain calm, stay far away and make loud noises.
“To avoid negative interactions, bears should never have access to human foods, garbage, pet food or bird food,” as feeding the animals could cause them to stop being afraid of people, according to wildlife officials.
This story was originally published December 14, 2022 at 9:32 AM with the headline "Worried homeowner follows noises to find ‘massive’ bear had made a den in NC backyard."
