I love it when friends and readers ask what bird or butterfly (and moth and caterpillar), and am only too happy to help them learn more about the creature they have found. Very funny though is the wide range of nature-related questions that I am asked. At a job site recently, the crew could not wait to show me the above humungous pile of pooh. Should I be flattered or dismayed?
Three times as large as the largest Great Dane pooh that you could possibly imagine, and not the right consistency for dog poop, it didn’t take much searching to determine that it was Black Bear pooh. We double checked with our friend Richard from the Department of Conservation and Recreation and sure enough, it was confirmed to be bear pooh.
As an alternative to what was suggested by the MSPCA in their “co-existing with coyotes literature,” which is that kids be kept indoors and that we keep donkeys and llamas as coyote deterrents, we instead perhaps should repopulate Cape Ann with bears. After all, bears were here before the earliest European settlers (think Bearskin Neck).
JUST KIDDING!
Willowdale is located within the Bradley Palmer State Park, which borders the towns of Ipswich, Topsfield, and Hamilton, which border the towns of Essex and Manchester. Has anyone in recent history spotted a Black Bear on Cape Ann?
Cape Cod’s Resident Black Bears Gets Evicted
Excellent link provided by GMG reader artbev on Animal Scat Notes. Thank you artbev!
American Black Bear Images courtesy google image search.
Good Morning Gloucester 
Ohhh….I saw pet of the week posts in the comment section….then scrolled over saw the bear thinking Pet of the week ~oh ~ the pooh ~ dare I say ~ another fine informative post! 🙂 BTW ~ that post that Tuffy sent to Joey ~ about the astronaut and the beans ~ I wonder what happens when …
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LOL Mary.
Thank you re fine informative post–great link provided below!
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Education-Awareness this is very good mother with cubs are cute but also when they can become very protective. Had a person find a cub by itself out on a walk pciked it up and it started singing out mom was nearby and person was very lucky to get away. Best to just leave them and call game and fish. The tuffy video, think the person hiding behind the rock gave away the hiding place and well i suspect or think we may know how that ended (POST) :-O
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My grandmother encountered a mama bear and her (2) cubs while berry picking and she was lucky too!!
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🙂
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Where was that photo taken from
Thanks
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At the Bradley Palmer State Park, near the Asbury Street entrance.
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Here is some more guidance on ID’ing “scat”
http://www.northwoodsguides.com/animal_scat_notes.htm
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Great link–thank you artbev. Seems to verify, “Scat may also appear as a loose pile with no particular shape when they are feeding heavily on berry crops in late summer to early fall.” It was during the fall when the pooh was found and the woods are rife with every kind of berry imaginable!
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That picture certainly doesn’t look like it was taken “in the woods”.
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I am not sure what you are asking Robin. The photo was taken at the Bradley Palmer State Park alongside one of the paths that run through the woods.
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Referring to the age old question; “Does a bear shit in the woods?”
It loses it’s humor when you have to explain it…..
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Sorry Robin–I can be slow that way!
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That’s crazy
So we can assume there was a bear in hamilton or ipswich?
Yikes!!
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Exciting–hoping to hear from readers of a Black Bear sighting!!
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Watch out you could find Yogi rummaging through your trash barrel for food.
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But not until spring when they come out of hibernation.
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