There's bears, and then there's big ole bears. A real hoss of a bear showed up recently to smile at night for a wildlife camera near the Pickens County home of Ray and Cindy Campbell.
"It was on a Thursday night two weeks ago [May 21]," Cindy Campbell said, showing photos of the bear at the Progress office. The big bruin wandered onto the Campbell place to munch a midnight snack at their backyard bird feeder.
"We saw him two nights later on Saturday night," Cindy said. That was an up close, personal encounter. The Campbells had seen black bears around their home before, but this one was large––large enough to be frightening, Cindy said. "We have a sunroom," she said. "We have a little deck that's about ten feet wide out back of the sunroom. He came right up to the edge of the deck."
Rubbing elbows with a wild beast so large wasn't exactly comfortable from the Campbell point of view, Cindy said. But for his part, the bear (Teddy the Campbells call him) took to the their place right off. In fact, he added the Campbell homestead to his list of favorite spots to stop by for a visit while out ranging the general neighborhood.
"He's been there ten times in the last three weeks to our house," Cindy said, "so we finally had to scare him off."
Campbell said the last time she and her husband saw Teddy they made a lot of noise to try to frighten the animal away. He sort of got the idea. But parting was such sweet sorrow, Teddy could barely make himself do it. He would move off into the edge of the woods, then return to the Campbell house, Cindy said. It took Ray Campbell firing a .22 rifle into the ground to finally frighten the big bear away, Cindy said.
"We live below Bent Tree on Long Swamp Church Road," she said. The Campbell place is close to where Darnell Creek runs off of the mountain toward Marble Hill.
The day she told the story at the Progress office, Cindy Campbell said the bear had not shown up again following the visit that ended with gunfire. About 200 undeveloped acres surround the Campbell homestead, Cindy said. Teddy always seemed to come onto their place from the south, she said. But the gun noise sent him on a northward skedaddle, she noted, his usual exit up toward the mountain ridge and the Bent Tree subdivision.
Multiple Teddy encounters have now influenced the Campbells to adjust their bird-feeding routine, Cindy said. All of their seed feeders plus the hummingbird type the Campbell's haul inside daily before Teddy's afternoon tea time. "He loves our hummingbird food," Cindy said.
Hopefully this big Teddy bear will maybe satisfy his sweet tooth from some handy bee tree instead and leave a little space between his burly bear self and the Campbells’ backyard. This is not your average bear.
"We've seen small ones, but we've never seen one this big," Cindy Campbell said. "He looks big in the pictures, but he's a lot bigger for real." |
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| One big black bear- |
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