Timothy: The Hungry Child

Timothy the Bear. August 2016

Meet Timothy. Timothy is one of the many hungry bears in my area due to the lack of rain in my region. Without the rain, there is no plant growth, so there are no berries or much of anything for the bears and other animals to eat. Which has lead the bears in particular to come to apple trees and I happen to have two in my yard.

Timothy was okay in the beginning, he was just hungry. He ate almost all of the apples off of the one tree, and that's fine. But Timothy took a swipe at my dog and cut her hind leg, Timothy used to be afraid of fire crackers, but he isn't anymore. Recently someone threw a fire cracker right in front of him to scare him off and he only ran two meters. The only thing that is known to scare him off now is shooting off an actual gun. I'm not fond of that. I wouldn't be so concerned if he just stayed at the apple tree but he is coming closer. I have to look out my front door when I leave my house now to make sure that I can walk up my drive without coming face to face with Tim. I want him to be able to eat the food, but I don't like that he has taking a hit at my dog, and is interfering with the safety of others now.

I'm on the fence. I want him to stay and eat because after all, this was his place first. The bears were here before my home was built over to decades ago.. But I want him to back off because I don't feel comfortable anymore.

Hopefully with the recent rain the food will start to grow deeper in the bush, and he'll go back there and find more food.