Geez and I get unhappy when the deer come and look in my window.  Drives the
cats crazy.

But that's the whole point. These bears in the US that are being chased
up trees have been chased by *kittens*.

Well, OK. She does deserve her retirement.

Joyce

FYI  http://myfwc.com/bear/foodlist.htm

Right, I forgot about fish.  Actually, I think the term in their case is
not "carnivore" but "omnivore" (same as humans).

<snip details>

Black bears aren't usually considered dangerous to humans unless you get
between Mama and her cubs or (in I think one or two extremely unusual
situations) someone basically trip overs one that's just coming out of
hibernation, and VERY hungry and bad-tempered. If you do upset a bear,
I'm told that they are very powerful, and can move a LOT faster than
you'd expect!

Grizzlies and polar bears are both bigger than black bears and said to
be more aggressive. Since polar bears spend so much of their time on the
ice, every couple of years or so, one ends up floating way south of
their normal range, and swimming ashore in my area. Now, *that's* a big
scary animal to see coming up the front steps following the interesting
scent of something tasty. They are also less inclined to live off
berries and other vegetation, I think.

Normally, of course, as soon as someone spots them, everyone's warned
and they are reported to the Wildlife people who have the job of
catching them and giving them a nice helicopter ride back north. But
there have been cases of one of them trying to get through a living room
picture window.

Cheyrl

I don't give a hoot what they eat so long as it isn't me and I am not close
enough I can see or hear them chomping.

We have a couple of true bear stories in our family.  One of my sisters has
a cabin in the Sierra's, on the way to Lake Tahoe.  A black bear broke into
her cabin, not by the windows but actually through the wall.  It had a wild
party which involved removing most of the food from the cupboards and
leaving a sticky mess with honey, crackers and a host of other comestibles
all over the floor.  Bear then crapped on the living room floor, opened a
book in front of the fire place with a carefully opened package of Ritz
crackers.  After reading a bit, and eating a few of said crackers, went into
the bedroom and pulled the covers back on the bed, very neatly, too.  My
sister walked in on the party, surprising the bear and herself!  Bear
finally left with some persuasion (my sister shot a rifle into the air) and
sister was left with a huge mess to clean up!

The other story was a bit scarier.  Another sister lives in Alaska.  Her
husband was on a photography outing in Denali Park (a huge wilderness park a
few hours south of Fairbanks, Alaska.  In this park, you cannot drive your
private vehicle into the park but can catch a ride on shuttle buses that
will drop you off wherever you want.  He hiked a couple of miles off the
park road and started taking pictures.  He spotted a grizzly bear and
commenced taking pictures of it, realizing after a bit that he could no
longer focus on the bear.  The bear kept approaching and eventually my BIL
dropped to the ground and assumed the fetal position, as advised by many
wildlife experts.  The bear came up to him, sniffed at him, and eventually
started biting at his leg.  How my BIL didn't get himself killed I don't
know but he eventually had enough of the pain, kind of tossed his backpack
to distract the bear.  The bear woofed a bit, backed away and then sauntered
off.  My BIL had to hike back to the road and wait for someone to stop and
pick him up, all the while fearing the bear would come back.  This happened
the first time I went to Alaska for the first time and I have to admit I've
been petrified of grizzlies ever since!

Bonnie

Ok, so long as you are nice to him and aware of his feelings, Miz Piglet
won't get upset.