Best to keep the doors locked in bear country… nowadays, black bears know how to work door handles.
It’s estimated that 340,000 bears live in the United States, and in certain parts of the country, residents have to always be on alert and keep an eye out for bears. Black bears make up most of that total number (around 300,000), and one place where you are likely to see them is North Carolina.
There’s believed to be 20,000 bears in the “Tarheel State,” and thanks to this video, we know that at least one of those bears is smart enough to open car doors. Some others were driving around and noticed that the wild animal was circling around a parked U-Haul van, and stopped to take a video.
It quickly became clear that the animal was trying to find a way in.
Bears tend to be pretty nosy creatures, and though they have been known to get violent when provoked (or if their cubs are messed with), they’re usually just curious. And sometimes that means getting into a little trouble, in most cases because they are searching for food. That’s normally the main cause for any bear interacting with humans, and that likely played a role in this video.
If there’s anything scented in a vehicle, a black bear can track it down from a mile away (literally). A black bear’s nose is 100 times greater than ours, and seven times greater than a bloodhound. So there’s a high likelihood that this big ol’ bear tracked down this smell all the way to the U-Haul, and then just had to get into the vehicle.
Time and time again, we’ve seen evidence that bears are very intelligent creatures when it comes to busting into cars. All this black bear had to do was stand on its hind legs, put its big paw on the door handle, and pull. The U-Haul was evidently unlocked, so it didn’t take much for the black bear to break in… it actually just kind of helped itself in.
Those parked close by got everything on video through the windshield of their vehicle. It’s strange to watch the bear act very human-like as it opened the van up, and I can only imagine what was going through their mind as they watched it happen from feet away.
Could they have honked to help out a bit? Maybe… but then we wouldn’t have gotten this video.
It didn’t take long for the bear to find what it was looking for. Seconds after the black bear got into the U-Haul, it hauled away a bag that it had taken a liking to. Chances are it had some sort of food or scented item inside of it, and it appears that the bear was going to take it elsewhere to dig through it.
Hope there wasn’t anything too important in the bag… because it looks like it belongs to the black bear now:
Rule of thumb: If you travel into “Bear Country,” just expect for bears to do regular, bear things, and try your best to avoid unintentionally luring them in. Locking your car doors is a good start.
