In town or out, this is the summer for black bears in our region.
They usually trash barbecues or root through garbage. But at Barber’s Bay in rural east Timmins, a bear Erin Thomson calls “a big guy” attacked a motorcycle.
Thomson says a neighbour alerted her of the animal headed her way. She sounded her car alarm to scare it off.
“He had knocked the bike down and destroyed the back seat,” she says, “but all I saw was his tail end taking off.”
Thomson says fortunately, the bike itself didn’t suffer much damage – surprising, considering it weighs 1,300 pounds.
Thomson is philosophical about the incident. She notes that we live in the bears’ area, and have to keep attractants like garbage and barbecues out of sniffing distance.
“This time, however, I’m not really sure why it was a motorcycle that got the brunt of its ire. We just need to do our best to live in nature, because we are in their area.”
Thomson acknowledges what the MNRF has told us, that a lack of berries this summer is probably why there are so many bears around. She says the tent caterpillar infestation wiped out the blueberry crop around her place.
