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No, we don’t have any bear problems out here where I live. At least not until recently. There has always been a small bear population in this area but they’ve pretty much kept to themselves and only a few lucky people got a chance to see them. Maybe around 5 years ago or so a cattle company from central Florida started buying up land from the St Joe company and clear cutting it so they could create pasture land and bring their cattle business up here. Of course this near complete destruction of habitat has displaced a lot of the wildlife to the point where the bear have become a nuisance. I like seeing them in the area so I can get pictures of them but they’re raiding garbage cans (even though people have been told to not leave them outside except during the day of trash pickup) and even bird feeders. In the past the bear have come at night and I’ve always brought my feeders in at night but now they come during the day and still get into my feeders and breaking the poles.
This is a near full-size male (obviously) bear that was sniffing around one of my feeders (before he came back a few days later and broke the pole). I let him go until he stood up and started pawing at the feeder. I walk out from behind the house and (empty) garbage can I was behind to scare him off. He ran off a few feet then turned around and came back. It took quite a bit of effort for me to eventually scare him away and back into the woods. It was obvious he was becoming too acclimated to human presence. I have a few options I’m looking into as possible deterrents for the next time they come around.