Three-legged black bear feels right at home in residential Florida: ‘Oh my God, he’s having a beer’ | outside

One of the videos shows, among other things, how the limp bear moves from the driveway of the Diglio family’s detached cottage to the veranda at the back at about 5 p.m. on Sunday. When dog Bruno raised the alarm inside, 13-year-old son Joseph led the pet away, locked him in a room and began filming the visitor through the window with his cell phone. “Oh my God, that’s a tripod,” he says, his voice cracking slightly. “Oh my God, he’s getting close. I’ve never been this close to this bear before. This is a unique experience. I feel like I should close all the doors because this boy is looking for food.”

The teen then films how the “tripod” calmly looks around the pool, stops among the patio furniture and then stands in front of the patio door next to the window. “Look how big it is. Oh my God, oh my God, go away,” the director whispered. Then the bear limps across the tiled floor to a wooden cabinet and opens a mini-fridge with one front paw. Oh my God, he takes a beer, looking surprised and laughing at the same time.

Turns out the “tripod” isn’t meant to hold drinks but food. “There’s no food there, buddy,” the teen continues, while his dog barks loudly in the background, eventually causing the bear to disappear.

According to him, this was the second time the black bear had managed to reach the closed balcony. “I was afraid that after opening the refrigerator, the tripod would also manage to open the balcony doors,” the teenager told regional TV channel Wish 2 News afterwards.

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The teenager’s mother stated that on her way home after shopping in the supermarket, she received a report from a security camera about movement on the grounds of her residence. Upon returning home, she discovered that the tripod had sunk its teeth into the family’s guppy shrimp meal tank in the yard before limping to the outdoor bar.

“I found all the closet doors open and three white claw marks on the tile floor,” she told the news channel. “He took a mango and a bowl of strawberries from the minibar.”

The Florida Fish and Conservation Commission estimates there are about 4,000 black bears in the state, most of them in the central region. It says the expanding habitats of a population of 21 million people are encroaching on all or parts of bear habitats.

“Bears come out of the forest looking for food,” Mike Orlando, bear management program coordinator, told the New York Times. “It’s hard to blame them. We’re encroaching on their territory and the bears are retreating.