A family in southern Alberta, Canada, recently had an intense run-in with three hungry and stubborn grizzly bears.
Keith Lang says he was in his yard at approximately 6:30 p.m. on Thursday when he saw three grizzly bears walking down the road towards his home.
“I didn’t think much of it. I figured they would make a wide berth around the place,” Land told the CBC.
Instead, the bears came onto the property and headed towards the family’s pet ducks.
In an attempt to scare away the bears, the family hopped in their truck and headed towards them while beeping the horn and yelling at the bears. Lang says that he has seen bears on the property before, but this encounter was different.
“I’ve seen bears cruise through the yard in the middle of the day and once you spook them, usually they will run and get out of Dodge, so to speak,” Land told the CBC.
After scaring off the bears initially, one returned multiple times and tried to challenge the family.
“These ones did not care whatsoever and they weren’t going to be told what to do and they weren’t going to leave, they were going to stick around,” Land said. “We made a pile of noise and I eventually drove that truck up to within about 10 feet of that bear before he left.”
But conservationist Kevin Van Tighem tells the CBC in a follow up article that the bears were “food obsessed” as they prepare for their upcoming hibernation.
Fortunately, the ducks are doing just fine, and Lang says the local Fish and Wildlife branch offered the family electric fence to protect the duck enclosure.
