Residents of the Prince Lake area, approximately 20 kilometres northwest of Sault Ste. Marie, will want to be extra cautious after resident Susan Staniforth informed SooToday of a frightening experience she and her husband had with a bear which wandered onto their property.
At 7 a.m. Tuesday, a bear peered through Staniforth’s front screen door, about six feet away from where she and her husband were sitting. The bear soon headed to their neighbour’s property.
“We thought it likely that it would have left the area, but around 4 p.m., the bear returned. It got into our shed where garbage is stored, and then was startled by my husband who was working nearby. This caused the bear to jump straight through the shed’s glass window. Once outside it turned to my husband, pawing the ground and huffing in warning. My husband retreated into the house,” Staniforth wrote in an email.
After taking some photos of the bear, Staniforth wrote she shouted at the animal in an attempt to scare the animal away.
“It responded by coming to the window, standing on its hind legs, and sticking its face in mine. I was the one scared away.”
Staniforth wrote this is not the first time a bear has been on her property and huffed into her windows.
“Because it/they seem to be getting bolder, visiting us both day and night, we reported the incident to the MNR (Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry, or MNRF) and to the police. The police responded quickly in order to assist in scaring it away. However, the bear had by then ambled off having finally finished eating trash and lounging around.”
Later, Staniforth learned from a neighbour that the bear is believed to be the smaller of two bears currently on the prowl in Prince Lake.
“The second bear is apparently very large. They seem comfortable visiting properties.”
A Ministry official, speaking to SooToday by phone, said “one of the biggest things we do recommend is minimizing the bear’s access to attractants, so we recommend people take out their garbage and recycling the day of collection. It’s never a good idea to put it out the night before.”
That doesn’t appear to have been a factor leading to the scare suffered by the Staniforths, although it's good advice for all homeowners concerned about bears.
“We also don’t recommend feeding wildlife, so we recommend people take their bird feeders down (in the spring and fill bird feeders only through the winter months)...and to keep things tidy, making sure grease traps and barbecues are clean after use because bears are, for the most part, looking for an easy meal,” the MNRF spokesperson said.
A wealth of safety precautions regarding bears may be found on the Ontario government’s Bear Wise website
Chris Oliver, a Sault-based MNRF bear management technician, in an emailed update received Thursday, stated “we have only received two calls in the Prince Lake area this year. Both calls came in on August 25, 2020. We have had one other call in Prince Township just over a month ago and it was a few kilometres from Prince Lake. At this point no bears have been shot or trapped in the area. Other than the damage to the shed, the district has not received any reports of property damage in this area. There have been no reports of injuries to people in the area.”
“At this time Prince Lake is not considered a problem area since we have not received any calls or requests for assistance from police prior to this point. For problem areas we try to reach out to residents. We also will distribute fact sheets to residents in the area to create awareness of the issue to advise them of ways to manage attractants. We will also do site visits when requested to determine the cause of the issue and how it can be rectified. MNRF puts out advisory materials for the public when there are areas of concern,” Oliver wrote.