Bear Talk

Bears are interesting animals with unique capabilities. Many of us have memories with bears, playing with teddy bears as kids and enjoying stories. But there’s a lot more to bears. Join me on this podcast as I recount close encounters of the bear kind and deliberate on the many qualities of these animals.

Transcript

Bear Talk

Hello everyone, and welcome to the podcast of the Ordinary Maverick. This is Ajey, your host, an ordinary Maverick sharing real life thoughts and experiences and Maverick tips. If you haven’t hit the subscribe button yet, please do so, and you’ll not miss another episode.

You must be wondering what in the bear are we talking about and why?

Over the last two years, I’ve spoken, discussed, heard, listened, googled more about bears than at any other time in my life. Funny how one doesn’t really think about something for the longest time and then suddenly it seems that there’s a lot of buzz around! Well, we had no reason to think about bears until they were in our backyard! Or so it seems.

We love where we stay, have no doubt. But it does come with some new experiences, and one of these was getting used to the idea that there were bears around. To be fair, this is their natural habitat, and they are where they should be. We know the challenges with wildlife and the impact of deforestation and expansion of homes into the country side, woods and mountains, forests.

And we are grateful and feel privileged to live amongst so much natural beauty, in the woods and the mountains. But it does come with some unique experiences and encounters with bears is one of them.

We have all grown up with bear’s right…I mean the soft toy kind… we have a mental image of them being so cuddly, cute and every thing that’s nice….but a big but !! hold your horses. While I have to admit, bears are fascinating creatures and make no mistake they are carnivoran mammals.  There are eight different species of bears and are found in North and South America as well as Europe and Asia. Six of the eight species are omnivorous and eat a variety of things. Bears are typically solitary animals and have an excellent sense of smell. Ha ha….I can definitely vouch for these attributes given my new experience. Often, the only way we know there’s a bear in the neighborhood is when we see the trash cans overturned and the garbage strewn all over the road. ‘Bear is on the prowl’ is the message on our phone group when that happens. Ha ha.

What’s interesting is that they go through a long period of hibernation, close to 100 days in the winter. 

Another interesting fact is that bears have excellent memories and it’s this attribute that helps them remember places where they have found food before. Which is what we see with our trash can bear! We know its ‘bear season’ and the bears have woken up from hibernation when we find our trash cans overturned as the bear looks for food remembering where he or she found food before!

I must admit that before we moved here, we didn’t have so much knowledge of bears. But since then, we’ve quickly educated ourselves. The bears in this part of the world are black bears, it’s the American black bear, medium sized and endemic to North America. It’s widely distributed and an omnivore.

They are not known to be aggressive and typically do not harm humans. Families who have been living in our area for decades do not recall any incident with the bears with regards to harming anyone. The challenge has been more with the bears ransacking the trash cans and creating a mess on the roads. And that brings me to another interesting thing, the bear resistant trash can.

Yes, these are special trash cans with lock lids that help keep bears out of them, normal cans have no locks. Garbage collection here is mechanized using auto arms to overturn the cans directly into the garbage trucks so cans with lock lids is not the norm, they have to be physically opened for dumping and thus is an added step in an otherwise efficient operation of collection. Lock lid cans cost more and one has to pay an additional monthly fees for garbage collection. Another new thing for us hahahah. 

You might be thinking, have we seen these wild bears? And the answer is yes. Seen them pretty close, mostly scampering away as they heard our car come in or other some noise. 

Going back to the attributes of a bear. Well, they have color vision maybe to pick out ripe berries? They also run fast, and are good swimmers too. So, good luck if you are being chased by bears, ha ha…very difficult to outrun or outswim then. Best to make some noise, wave your hands so they avoid you altogether. In any case, these are the tips shared with us by locals  to prepare for a bear encounter.

Fellow Mavericks, you might have read about the characteristics of personalities. And come across someone saying it’s the bear personality. Well, what does that mean? Typically that relates to being loyal and intelligent. Good qualities for sure. Speaking about loyalty and animals. Have to say it’s hard to top that, right? I recall our dog, Bella, giving up on food when we were moving from South Africa to Nigeria. We didn’t have a place to stay in Nigeria and left our dogs in a kennel in South Africa while we traveled ahead to sort out a place to stay. Our plan was to bring the dogs once the place was sorted. All got preponed a bit due to Bella giving up food. She just wouldn’t eat at the kennel and kept sitting and staring at the place where she had been dropped off and seen us leave. Must say it was not easy…we panicked a bit, and it brought urgency to our house hunting. 

Dogs are loyal creatures we know that. And we saw that firsthand many times with ours. 

Speaking of bears, most of us might have had a teddy bear toy as a child. They are adorable, cuddly and something that every child loves. I recall having several bear toys at home when our girls were growing up. And then there was this phase of dressing up your bear. There were these Build a bear workshop where you went in and picked out a bear and then dressed up the bear and they had many accessories to choose from…such a fun activity for kids.

We’ve done it and had these bears at home through out when the kids were growing up. The toy bears come in all sizes and shapes. Not sure of you’ll, but we have bears that are tiny and then there are the big ones…one which was almost 5 feet tall! Came with us from South Africa to Nigeria and then we gave it to one of our dear friend’s daughter as we moved yet again from Nigeria to Bangladesh.  

And of course, we grew up with Winnie the Pooh, the adorable bear and the fun loving Baloo, with his antics and bare necessities fun with Mowgli in the Jungle book! We ‘ve all adored bears, no doubt. 

Let me share one interesting fact and one fun one. First the interesting one - Do you know about the Berlin Bear? Well, must say, Berlin surprises you…one thinks of Berlin as a bustling city with art, history, culture. But you know what, Berlin has a symbol that is present everywhere, on the streets, buildings and that’s the iconic Berlin Bear! The bear has played a significant role in the history of the city and has been present in the city’s coat of arms since the 13th century symbolizing strength, resilience and protection. As you walk through Berlin, the bears are right there. Beautiful statues lovingly created. Sometimes they are adorned with scarves and hats.

Now for the fun one, our car wash is also called brown bear! We go there often to get our cars cleaned and there’s a bear waving at us…it’s a friendly place, ha ha.

My dear Mavericks, as I learn more about bears, some of their qualities stand out and it’s interesting to note that these qualities are the ones celebrated whether it’s the bear personality or a city’s symbol.

As a Maverick I am committed to lifelong learning. And one can learn so much from bears. Some qualities are resourcefulness, doing the right thing at the right time and a strong memory! Plus doing what needs to be done and keeping to oneself. 

In life, these qualities can take you a long way. And animals and nature teach you that. Just like the bear who knows when it’s time for hibernating, and  knows when the season changes and prepares itself for it, we humans need to know and action the right thing at the right time. 

This was reinforced for me quite recently as our family went through some difficult times. More on this and grief in another episode. But what shone through was the actions of people around us and our family and friends. If there’s one learning, one take away, Mavericks, it is this. Listen to your gut and act on it. That’s number one of the Maverick formula, remember. And your gut is never wrong. 

So, never wait for the right time. Act now and when your gut tells you to do so. That’s the right time. 

Do share your thoughts at ‘theordinarymaverick@gmail.com’ and follow me on Instagram #theordinarymaverick.  I love hearing from you. This is Ajey, signing off and wishing you have an amazing rest of the year and kickstart the new year doing what makes you happy! Keep well. 

This podcast series was put together as a team effort from the Bhardwaj family.  Concept, design, title, researchers and reviewers: Ajey, Sanjana, Avantika and Niharika Bhardwaj; Script– Sanjana; Cover design – Niharika. All rights reserved.