Black Bears, Snakes and Catastrophe

As I said in my first post, I won't be talking about rabbits all the time.  This particular post is dedicated to all black bears.  The reason? Well...my parents had their wedding anniversary and to celebrate, they wanted the house to themselves.  Consequently, my siblings and I were sent to our grandparents for 3 days.  When we came back (which was June 5, 2014...so the very beginning of this month) I went to check on my rabbits only to find that a black bear had been there and caused a lot of damage.

The damage he had done was knock over my shelving unit I had, which was filled with lots of rabbit equipment.  Because of this, there was broken glass all over the ground. 

He had used some of my rabbit hutches to climb up onto, crushing them in and terrifying the rabbits in there, and punched through our chicken coop window. 

He then proceeded to kill 2 of our chickens.  Eating one fully, then leaving the other's carcass on the ground.  Feathers, blood, and guts all over all the rabbit hutches, water bottles, etc. 

I was horrified to see we were now getting bears and that they had actually gone after our chickens.  I got my mother and together she and I began cleaning up the mess left by the unwelcomed bear.  My mom went around to some of our neighbors asking if they had seen a bear.  The answer?   Well, it appears that a mother bear had 3 cubs who she recently threw out of her 'nest'.  These 3 juvenile bears have been going up and down our area causing destruction all over. 
                                                   

                                                                                                                      
Know aware that there was not only one, but three bears around, we had to make sure our animals were safe.  Getting lots of soda cans from neighbors, we filled them full of rocks and hung them on strings around the area with our animals/garden.  My dad put metal bars on the window's of our chicken coop to prevent the bears from being able to get back in.  He also put metal bars on the tops of my rabbit hutches so if a bear sits on them again, they won't cave in on my rabbits. 

Making sure all the gates to our animals/garden area were securely shut, our final step was some advice given to us by our neighbor.  He said the bears had been going after his bird feeders.  All he had done was put a spot-light out there and the bears stayed away after that.  We, therefore, put one up. 

Since then, the bears have stayed away.  Although, they left a pile of evidence behind that they did come back a few days later, only to walk along the fence line, then leave. 

While the bears were gone and that was wonderful, my rabbits who had been in the hutches were not doing very well.   And what was even worse, was they were all mothers with babies ranging from around 10 days old, to 6 weeks old. 

I'm sure you all can imagine what happened.  Well, incase you did not know, rabbits are extremely sensitive when it comes to behind alert.  This means they can be scared very easily.  Mine had been scared so badly, they had heart attacks.

The next few days were awful.  Over a dozen babies died and 2 mothers from heart attacks.  After that, a lot of babies from the 2 litters who lost their mothers went into a depression of sorts.  They became very melancholy and stopped eating, drinking, and cleaning themselves.  I tried all I could, but ended up losing a lot of babies from depression. 

To lose a rabbit you've raised from birth and even a few you saw born is very hard.  After 2-2 1/2 weeks of going out and having another dead rabbit I was becoming very frustrated.  Yet, I knew that you cannot focus on what's bad in a situation, but what's good.  Every night I would pray that they would be safe and healthy.  And every day I would think to myself "bad times are to make us appreciate the good times more". 

 

After feeling like things were finally starting to get better out with my rabbits, I walked out to see a massive black snake staring at some of my smaller rabbits.  Now, I know black snakes are good, they are not poisonous and they eat unwanted rodents.  However...rabbits (especially baby rabbits) are extremely small and would make a good snack for a black snake.

I ran inside and told my siblings, who came out with me to get a look at this 'massive' snake.  After seeing it and assessing the situation, my brother helped me get the snake into a bucket and take it to a place where we would be assured he wouldn't come back.

Father's day rolled around and I went out to tend my rabbits.  As I went to get one of the water bottles from a hutch, I stepped on a snake.  Realizing what had just happened, I leapt back with a small scream, then ran into the house to get my dad.  By the time we got back out there, he was gone.  Now, this snake was much smaller...only about a foot long.  He was black with two yellow stripes going all the way from his head to his tail.  I have not seen him since then, but I keep an eye out.

After my dad went back inside because we could not find the snake, I heard my neighbors down the hill from us shouting "Look! There's a bear! There's a bear, go get your sister!" 

I ran and got my dad again, we ran out to see this bear, but couldn't find him.  However, later that evening as we were driving home from my grandparents, we were on our road as we saw a fair sized black bear in the middle of the road! 

Needless to say we stopped the car.  He slowly walked up the hill.  My dad rolled down the window's and shouted at it.  The bear was unafraid and turned as though he had been challenged by my dad.  This was rather scary as most black bears are easily spooked.  However, this bear wasn't afraid in the least.  In conclusion...I'm keeping my eye out for black bears and snakes every time I'm out with my rabbits.  However, with all this bad luck, I must be having some good times coming my way soon.