| VOLUME XXXI No. 12 | Narrowsburg, NY | March 24 - 30, 2005 |
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Bears in the backyard SHOHOLA, PA — The deer and black bears that cavort in her backyard are like outside pets for Tammy Worzel. She and her husband Don keep a photo album of the cubs’ antics, tree climbing, wrestling and chasing their mother about. After all, they’re practically neighbors, since the bears’ den is only stone’s throw from the Worzel home. So there was a lot of natural curiosity on March 16 when state bear biologist Mark Ternent and a crew from the Pennsylvania Game Commission showed up to tranquilize and tag the sow and her three cubs. About a dozen family members and neighbors showed up at the Worzel home with cameras and camcorders in hand to watch and record the action. Officials estimate that some 15,000 black bears live in Pennsylvania, and even amid the county’s rapid recent growth, Pike County has maintained one of the state’s most thriving black bear populations. |
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| TRR photo by David Hulse | |
| Nadége Hoeper of Shohola holds one of three black bear cubs that state game officials tagged at their mother’s den in Shohola on March 16. See story on page 24. (Click for larger version) |
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| TRR photo by David Hulse | |
| Pennsylvania Game Commission bear biologist Mark Ternent is pictured with the 194-pound black bear sow in the Worzel’s den. The den was the second explored on March 16 in Pike County. Five cubs and their mother were tagged earlier in a Lackawaxen, PA den. (Click for larger version) |
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| TRR photo by David Hulse | |
| Pennsylvania Game Commission Officer Justin Clush held one of the tagged cubs as biologist Mark Ternent reinstalled the bruin family inside their den. Ternent’s foot can be seen protruding from the dens. (Click for larger version) |
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| TRR photo by David Hulse | |
| Photographer Ron Lockwood held one of the bear cubs. (Click for larger version) |
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Entire contents © 2005 by the author(s) and Stuart Communications, Inc.