Rhonda M. Partyka still recalls the night as though it were
yesterday.
One early evening in June, Partyka placed a frantic phone call to
police from her Blandford home, about a boorish, unwanted visitor
"tearing apart her house" as she dialed.
With the sound of shattering glass marking its entrance, the
visitor - a full-sized black bear - tore a window out of its frame,
Partyka said, an 8-foot hunk of siding ripping off the building
along with it.
The bear was apparently attempting to get onto the family's
enclosed porch, where a large stash of sunflower seeds was
stored.
"When he pulled that window out," Partyka said, "it was like
nothing. It was unbelievable."
With her children home with her, Partyka said nothing she did -
clanging on pots and yelling at the animal, included - had any
effect on the situation.
"They say bears are elusive animals," she said. "By no means was
this bear elusive."
People in many areas of the state are running into boldly behaved
bears like the one Partyka encountered.
Recent incidents in Hampden, Hampshire and Franklin counties have
shaken up residents in a number of towns, with bears reportedly
weighing more than 300 pounds attacking dogs, raiding garbage cans
and making broad daylight appearances just a few dozen feet from
children playing in their backyards.
Sightings have been reported in more than a dozen towns from
Blandford to Ware, including in thickly settled areas like downtown
Palmer. In western Hampden and Hampshire Counties, sightings are so
common that many cases go unreported, Cardoza said.
"We easily have 2,000 bears in the state," Cardoza said. "They're
ubiquitous west of the Connecticut River, and there's some all the
way out into Central Massachusetts."
Encounters up and down the East Coast this year range from the
routine to the bizarre, including a June 15 incident in Rocky
Mount, Va., where authorities shot a black bear after it wandered
into Carillon Franklin Memorial Hospital.
Locally, incidents have raised safety concerns with
residents.
In Northampton, a bear attacked a sleeping Jack Russell terrier
June 22, delivering fatal wounds to the 5-year-old dog. In a
separate incident the day before, Northampton police said another
dog was also killed in a bear-related incident after it was hit by
a motorcycle while chasing a bear across a street.
In Deerfield last week two bears were shot: one June 27 by a farmer
after the animal climbed a barbed wire fence and went after his
livestock and dog, the other by Environmental Police June 25 after
it broke into an Upper Road home, stealing a loaf of bread while a
woman slept upstairs.
Residents in the Turkey Hill section of Belchertown are also
keeping their eyes open for a bear that has been sighted numerous
times in the area, including when it unexpectedly dropped in on a
backyard barbecue June 27. It came less than 25 feet from six
children between the ages of 3 and 6 playing in the yard, said
Belchertown resident Steve Soja.
"He had no fear of humans, and was certainly comfortable in his
surroundings," Soja said.
While bear attacks remain uncommon, the long-term trend of their
growing comfortable living in close quarters with humans is one
that worries Cardoza. In one case two years ago, a black bear was
even found denning underneath a porch in the Northampton area,
Cardoza said.
So how does one stop bear troubles? Problems with brazen bruins
usually boil down to one thing: food.
As young bears grow accustomed to higher-protein human food, they
lose their taste for more natural foods like nuts and berries,
Cardoza said. They begin taking chances, raiding bird feeders, corn
fields and garbage cans in search of a bite to eat.
"It's somewhat like young people," Cardoza said. "Would they rather
eat their vegetables or go to McDonald's?"
The first thing to do when bear problems arise is to remove
anything that may seem appealing to a hungry bear, Cardoza said.
Keep your distance, but be aggressive when you first see them,
using things like garden hoses to scare them. If you don't they
will quickly lose their fear of humans.
And most importantly, under no circumstances try to make bears into
pets, leaving "treats" for them - it encourages them to stay in the
immediate area, and is actually illegal in some states, Cardoza
said.
"It's an awful thing to do. Sooner or later, either people are
going to get hurt, or the bear is going to get hurt," he
said.
Material from The Associated Press was used in this story.
