When a bear wants to eat your cake, you let it eat your cake.
An Ottawa-area woman says she was shocked and surprised to see a large black bear devouring cake from her garbage on Wednesday night, in one of several bear sightings reported in the area and caught on video this June.
“We saw him in all his glory standing up and going through the garbage,” homeowner Paula Clancy told CTV Ottawa. Clancy said it was exciting to see “something big and wild” outside her Manotick, Ont. home, and it’s not something that happens often.
“You don’t expect to see that outside your home in suburban Ottawa,” she said.
Another Manotick man captured video of a bear in his backyard on Wednesday morning. Sandro Campagna says a small bear wandered across his yard near his birdfeeder, before disappearing into the treeline.
“We’ve seen so many animals here through the years, but never anything that big,” Campagna said.
Forestry officials say this is the time of year when mature bears go looking for a mate. Many young bears are also striking out on their own for the first time at this point in the season.
About two dozen bear sightings have been reported in the Ottawa area this June, according to Scott Smithers of the Ministry of Natural Resources.
“There’s been more bear sightings this year than there have been for a couple years now,” Smithers told CTV Ottawa.
Black bears are known to live in the Ottawa area.
The Ontario government has set up a web page for residents to report their bear sightings online.
