Results tagged “bear”

The Standard Hotel may be able to handle some skin... as long as it's not leather. Following all the attention they've gotten for their exhibitionist guests (and staff), the Villager reports the hotel on the High Line didn't want the West Village Leather and Bear Street Fair coming near their doors, even though it won unanimous approval from Community Board 2.

The BearVault canister is touted as being "bear resistant" (not to mention "grizzly & black bear-approved") but there's one bear who appears to have mastered opening the container: Yellow-Yellow, a 125-pound bear upstate. According to the NY Times, with word of her prowess spreading, "she has emerged as a near-mythical creature in the High Peaks region of the northeastern Adirondacks." Even though the BearVault has two tabs that need to be pushed in order to turn the lid, Yellow-Yellow (so-named for her two yellow tags) "apparently depresses one tab with her teeth, turns the lid, uses her teeth on the second tab, and then opens it." The Times even has a graphic! State wildlife technician Ben Tabor, who says Yellow-Yellow is shy, said, "I don’t think she’s smarter than most bears. I think she’s had more time to learn." But this means a career as a product tester—BearVault creator Jamie Hogan has a new canister model lined up: "State officials have agreed to test it by filling it with aromatic food and depositing it on Yellow-Yellow’s turf." Aw, we hope they give her a treat for all her hard work!

Never since Tony Soprano prowled his NJ kitchen has a big bear wanted Italian cold cuts so much! The Star-Ledger reports that Vernon resident Henry Rouwendal's "Italian hoagie, loaded with salami and other meats, lettuce, onions and tomatoes" was so tempting that a black bear knocked him down: "Rouwendal said was knocked, face-first to the ground. When he rolled over, the bear was standing over him and then grabbed the sandwich." The 52-year-old electrical engineer said, "I kicked him three times in the snout and one time in the throat. I think the one in the throat got him." The bear ran off—with the sandwich—as Rouwendal was left on the ground. It took him an hour to get up and go back inside his house; he has a "large cut on his left temple and several deep bruises on his knee, elbow and buttocks." The police are calling it an attack, but the NJ DEP doesn't think it's an attack. DEP deputy director Lawrence Herrighty said, "At this point, it just doesn't seem we will label this as an attack on a person. ... He has no bruises, claw marks or scratches or even a ripped shirt that indicates it was a purposeful attack by the bear."

Since Connecticut has banned the ownership of exotic animals—including gorillas, chimps, orangutans, lions, leopards, cheetahs, jaguars, ocelots, bobcats and other big, wild cats, wolves, coyotes and bears—as pets, the state is offering a one-day amnesty program that will allow people to bring in their exotic and illegal pets to a zoo without repercussions. The Connecticut Post reports, "All animals collected become property of the DEP... homes will be found for the animals, though probably not at the zoo. Most of the pets will likely go to wildlife sanctuaries or other agencies equipped to handle them." The director of the Beardsley Zoo, where owners can turn in their pets on July 25, Gregg Dancho said he's seen monkeys hanging out in kitchen and people walking mountain lions, "A lot of times, this is impulse buying." Oh, this reminds us of Ming, the tiger found in a Harlem apartment nearly six years ago.

Happy Halloween! Warning: These videos of various animals at the Wildlife Conservation Society's facilities may be too distractingly cute.

The Wooster Collective recently featured video of a piece of street scultpure by Joshua Allen Harris. It could be describe as kinetic pneumatic art, and features an inanimate pile of material attached to a subway grate. When a train passes in the tunnel beneath the grate, the upward flow of displaced air fills the material and produces a medium-sized bear. The continued flow of air makes it appear as if the bear is actually animated, like it's shaking off some arctic water. When the train is gone, the bear retreats to its former state of hibernation, waiting for the next train so it can rise again.

What can you say about the Vernon NJ Police Department except that they like Hanna-Barbera? Because they created a "WANTED" poster with Yogi Bear's likeness, after discovering a black bear had stolen a minivan. Well, maybe "stolen" is overreaching, but Patrolman David Dehardt noticed that a Mazda minivan was parked in an odd spot, and when he approached the car, it had the classic signs of bear presence: "mashed window, paw prints, smudge marks on...