(WKYT) – For the last two days an unexpected guest has been coming to a London home for breakfast — not the humankind, but a black bear.
A bear expert with the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources said people can expect to see a lot more of them in June. This is the time they’re mating and coming out of hibernation.
They’ve been spotted in Mount Sterling and Mount Vernon as well.
A London couple caught the bear on camera red-handed, helping himself to a bird feeder.
Wildlife enthusiast gets surprise visitor
This is the London home of Aaron and Mandee Miracle. For them the porch and nature are a place of peace.
“I absolutely adore wildlife and this is what we do,” Mandee Miracle said.
Mandee fills up a bird feeder and her furry friends come to eat.
“I have a squirrel named Herbert,” she said.
A turkey.
“Gobbler Kay-Fanny is what I named her,” she said.
And this past Saturday and Sunday, a new visitor came to feast.
“I was like holy crap, I’ve never seen a bear in my life in person and now there’s one in my front yard,” Mandee Miracle said.
A black bear. This one doesn’t have a name yet.
“He looked skinny too like he hadn’t had a whole lot of food. Honestly I felt sorry for him ‘cause he really wanted food. We didn’t have anything here at that moment,” she said.
That’s because Mandee had put the bird feed away. No Monday morning breakfast for you.
Bear returns from different paths
“The first day it came out of the woods right here. As you can see this path’s been down here for a while,” Aaron Miracle said.
And on another day he came from the back of the house.
“It was coming out here by the pond. You can look there’s a path along the bank of that pond right there,” Aaron Miracle said.
“So he came up near my son’s bedroom and looked through the window and kept mossing along,” he said.
In the last week people living in Mount Vernon, Mount Sterling and London have reported seeing black bears. Experts say be ready to see more of them because it’s mating season and hibernation is in the past.
Attacks rare, expert says
John Hast, the bear program coordinator with the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources, said sometimes a black bear will attack a human.
“A handful every year but you’ve got far better odds of having difficulty with other stuff including feral dogs,” Hast said.
Hast said have a healthy respect for these furry creatures. He said if you see one, keep your distance and make noise and they’ll go away.
“I love seeing him roam around but at the same time I don’t know if I want to see him coming back because of my children playing and stuff outside all the time,” Mandee Miracle said.
To keep the bears away, Hast recommends people bring their pet food inside and place trash cans inside a garage.
For more information on how to be bear aware, visit https://bearwise.org/.