Drought drives bears to search for food in Minnesota's north woods

PARK RAPIDS, Minn. -- Joe Markell lives on East River Drive, just across the river from the Cenex station in Park Rapids. He learned a bear had visited their birdfeeders at 12:10 a.m. July 21 when he saw the large bruin on their Google Nest camera.

"Our feeder was damaged and I thought it might have been racoons," he said. "Then I checked the video. It looked well-fed and like a really big bear. It looked like the back legs were brownish in color or maybe it's shedding. It was probably about 20 feet from our door. We didn't hear anything and the dog was inside, but didn't bark. We had garbage in cans outside but didn't see anything ripped open."

The bear bent the hinged rod of the suet feeder down and ate the suet.

https://www.dglobe.com/northland-outdoors/7124812-Drought-drives-bears-to-search-for-food-in-Minnesotas-north-woods