This is not going to help the belief some people have that black bears are pretty much just big old puppies…
Although New Jersey may be best known for Jersey Shore, crowded cities, and great bagels, it also has a high density of black bears per square mile.
Using data from World Population Review, New Jersey has the 10th highest black bear density of any state with approximately .4 black bears per square mile. For reference, Maine has the highest with 1.13 per sq. mile, followed by Massachusetts and Vermont at .57 and New Hampshire at .55, while Tennessee has .14 and Colorado has .15.
All that is to say that that black bear sightings in the Garden State are far from uncommon and this video shows just how calm some residents are with these always curious predators.
This summer, a woman in Vernon, New Jersey spotted a young black bear walking on her deck railing and decided to try to get rid of it, not by making loud noises and scaring it off, but simply by just asking it politely to leave.
Here is where I would typically make fun of that approach, but somehow, for some reason, this bear actually listened.
Granted, where people get comfortable with bears, bears will get comfortable with people, which could be a deadly combination, but not in this case, as the bear did what was asked when the woman sternly said:
“Down. Down.”
I almost want to give this guy a treat and a good belly rub for behaving so well. I still don’t think this course of action is advisable, but hey, if it works, it works.
Maybe we just need to have this woman come talk to all the bears and there would be no problems moving forward…
