Bears and Bobcats on Cam!

Our area is developing but our property still has plenty of habitat for wildlife. The local facebook group is full of sightings of bears, bobcats, fox and many other animals. Many of these are predators and most would love to have chicken or possibly goat for dinner. In order to help us plan, we set up a trail cam in the clearing on the other side of the property. It is the perfect route for many animals to travel up the ridge and over to a large piece of undeveloped acreage. We also placed a camera behind our house and down a slope which looks easily traveled.

Close to home

Over the next month, I checked the camera every week. Where I grew up, wild animals were pretty wary of human scent and I didn’t want to deter them anymore than necessary. The first thing captured on cam was a big startle. We’d lived here for several months with no animal sightings and we discovered we had visitors right by our house. A very large bear activated the camera closest to our front deck one evening. In the video, we could see the light on the porch switch on as Rick let Mr. B. out for the last time. Fortunately, he decided to go the other direction when he heard them.

Bears, Bobcats and more

Over the next three weeks, the camera captured many more animals than just that one bear. Deer traveled across the lot, rabbits dashed, and even a possum scurried through! A pair of bobcats also ran across the field of view. A bigger surprise was a sole coyote. It didn’t linger long but did pause and look straight at the camera. No fox have been sighted yet and I am glad because they are one of my favorite woodland creatues. The last creatures caught on cam during that time was a mother bear and her two cubs.

Keeping Everyone Safe

We now know that black bears and bobcats are our biggest danger to our animals especially the chickens. Bobcats are agile and can go over fences and through small spaces. The bears have brute strength so a strong, secure enclosure isn’t enough. We made some modifications to our original plans such as motion sensing lights and more importantly electric fencing around our enclosures. While we want to deter the predators, we would prefer not to harm them unless absolutely necessary. Hopefully this and being cautious about attractants like stinky garbage and animal food will keep all the creatures safe.

Do you have predators on your homestead? What preventative measures have you taken? We would love to learn any additional steps we can take to secure our homestead!