SGT Rock
08-10-2005, 08:23
Animal experts in Croatia say a bear has learned how to trick people to let him in by knocking at the door.
They believe the 35-stone brown bear probably learned the trick while nudging a door to get it to open.
Experts speculate the nudging was mistaken by the owners for knocking and that the bear, pleased by the outcome, repeated the tactic.
The Loknar family from Gerovo in western Croatia said the bear had knocked at their door three times and they were now refusing to answer the door.
Mum Nevenka Loknar said: "We jumped out the window as he came in through the door and raided the kitchen the first time.
"I opened the door and saw him standing there and I didn't believe my eyes at first, then I ran for it as he walked in as if it was the most normal thing in the world.
"Bears are a common thing in the woods around here, but no one has ever heard of a bear that knocks at the door.
"The bear is so intelligent it's incredible. We've tried to put up lots of obstacles to stop him coming in, like a wire fence but he still gets through. I wouldn't be surprised if he knew how to use wire cutters."
Ananova: Bear Knocks on Door. Retrieved 10 August 2005 from http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_1452932.html?menu=news.quirkies.animaltales
Air Head
08-10-2005, 10:02
Hahaha... That's awesome. That bear should be caught and sent here to teach our bears how to do that. Just don't let him come to NJ... : P
Freighttrain
08-10-2005, 10:06
i dunno if im more surprised that the bear knocks on doors or that there are bears in Croatia
peter_pan
08-10-2005, 10:23
That is certainly more effective than ringing the bell since they often don't work or are non existant...
Pan
Hahaha... That's awesome. That bear should be caught and sent here to teach our bears how to do that. Just don't let him come to NJ... : PIt would be awesome if hundreds of pounds of meat just walked up to your door and knocked. Deer and moose should be taught this trick as well. Just like fish should be taught to jump right into my frying pan. I'm not much of a sportsman I guess. I just like like to eat meat and drag my knuckles!:) Thats not a dig either. I am serious. Not an ultralighters ounce of sarcasm here.
There seems to be no end to their depravity.......
Republican-American (Waterbury, CT) - May 29, 2005 Bear's yen for fries destroys Rabbit Vegetable fuel attracts fast-food predator
WINSTED — Larry Joy decided to help the environment by fueling his compact car with used vegetable oil pumped from restaurant fry vats. He never figured the scent of french fries would attract a hungry bear with a yen for fast food.That's what happened two weeks ago, when Joy walked outside his house and found the evidence: muddy paw prints caked around a shattered car window, a plastic fuel tank tipped on its side, gnawed hoses and pool of cooking oil on the rear...
Here's the link, but it just gives you the above abstract, and tells you the complete article is only availible for a fee.
http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives
smokymtnsteve
08-10-2005, 20:10
Bear opens garage door, saunters into family's kitchen
By KORRY KEEKER
Juneau Empire
JUNEAU, Alaska
Geri Anderson was sitting in the computer room in the back of her Sunset Street home when she heard a noise in her kitchen just after 9:30 p.m. Sunday.
She went to the kitchen to investigate and found a black bear, eating garbage and licking the plates from her family's rib dinner, a few hours before. The bear turned around and snorted at her.
"All the bones were in the kitchen garbage, and he had it spread out all over the floor," Geri said. "He had a pretty good mess going by that time."
"I turned around and I didn't make a sound or anything," she said.
The bear entered the house through the Andersons' connecting garage, Geri said.
"The switch on the garage door was turned off so there was no power in the door," she said. "He was able to lift the garage door up and come in, and the garage door went down behind him."
Geri came out, but didn't see the bear, which was already in the garage. She went back, heard another noise and came out again.
She found the bear this time _ about two feet away, she said.
As Geri walked quickly back to the bedroom, the bear followed her eight feet down the hallway.
"I felt him," Geri said. "I just turned around and started walking away really fast, and I got down the hallway, opened the door and closed it and said, 'Bob, there's a bear in the house.' I just fell apart, I was so scared."
Bob, her husband, jumped out of bed and went to the door. He opened it and saw the bear staring back at him.
"I've been in Alaska a long time," said Bob, a 46-year resident. "I've seen a lot of bears, and I lived in Yakutat for 18 years and I've hunted and been in different situations. My wife, she's never had that."
"I closed the door, and I put my weight against it, and I could feel the door being pushed," he said. "It was a big black bear. When he turned, his rump went up against the door."
The bear knocked off a small decorative shelf at the end of the hall, just outside the door.
"I think he saw himself in the mirror and took a swat at himself," Bob said. "But he wasn't aggressive. He had a lot of guts to walk into a house through the garage door."
Geri called 911 and said she got through to the police at 9:51 p.m.
"They said, 'Where's the bear?'" Geri said. "We said, 'He's right outside the door.'"
Three officers arrived in the Andersons' front lawn just before 10 p.m. and continued to speak to Geri on the phone. That's when, according to the police report, the bear stood up on its hind legs, put both front paws on the glass, broke through the window and escaped into the woods.
"I was talking to them on the phone in the bathroom and Bob was still holding the door," Geri said. "They said, 'The bear leapt through your living room window.'"
The bear crashed through the glass, ripping down the blinds, clawing the radiator and almost shattering a framed, glass decoration of a raven that hangs in front of the window.
The Andersons' landlord estimated the damage at $5,000 and will pick up the bill, Bob said.
The Andersons have lived at their Sunset Street home for 10 years. They've seen bears sniffing around their house and garage before, and once took a picture of a baby bear crawling on their deck.
"That was frightening, but not like this," Geri said.
____
Juneau Empire reporter Tony Carroll contributed to this report.
___
Information from: Juneau Empire, http://www.juneauempire.com
Tha Wookie
08-10-2005, 23:52
hehe, yeah, now theyre going to start slaughtering bears becuase they're getting too polite....
next thing you know they'll be opening doors for women... WAIT! Those are OUR women!:p