Posted on 03/27/2025 9:22:48 PM PDT by Red Badger
A North Carolina man uses a bear suit to scare black bears off his lawn. Some Wyomingites said trying that with a grizzly would be insane. They could maul you, or worse, try to get frisky.
A North Carolina man uses a bear suit black bears off his lawn. Some Wyomingites said trying that with a grizzly would be insane. They could maul you, or worse, try to get frisky. (Rodney Clark) A North Carolina man took a creative and goofy approach to bear deterrence —stepping out of his house in a bear suit to spook away a black bear that had plunked down on his lawn.
It worked for Rodney Clark of Asheville, North Carolina, as evidenced by media interviews and a video making the rounds on news outlets and social media.
However, some Wyomingites said trying that tactic on a grizzly bear would probably get a person mauled, possibly killed — or perhaps even worse — molested by the bear.
Eastern Bears Bigger, But More Mellow The Eastern U.S. has plentiful black bears. Because they eat so well, they can be huge, sometimes even bigger than Western grizzlies.
However, their relatively easy living has also left them docile, at least compared to bears in Wyoming.
That appears to be the case of the bear in the video, which is chilling on a lawn as the man steps out in a bear suit, which looks like it could be a sports team mascot costume.
As the man in the suit approaches the actual bear, the animal looks perplexed for a moment, before jumping up and running for a short distance.
In a second encounter caught on video, the bear suit proves to be too much, as the bear pauses near a wooden fence and looks back for a moment. Then it scrambles under the fence’s lower rail and scampers away.
A message left for Clark wasn’t answered by publication time for this story.
In an interview with “Inside Edition,” he said that the bear costume has proven effective in pushing bears off his property.
He told “Inside Edition” that bears sometimes “stop and pause and look back. They’re not really sure what that is.”
That proves to finally be too much for the bear, which scrambles under the fence’s lower rail and scampers out of sight.
VIDEO AT LINK........................
Funny, But Not A Good Wyoming Option Wildlife photographer Jorn Vangoidtsenhoven has spent countless hours in the field with Wyoming’s wildlife, and has been charged by animals like bears and moose a time or two.
He told Cowboy State Daily that he admires the creativity of Clark’s approach to bear deterrence but doesn’t recommend it for Wyoming.
“That's funny to watch, but I personally wouldn't try it on a grizzly bear,”Vangoidtsenhoven said. “They're not territorial, neither are black bears, but if the grizzly decides to stand its ground, you're in a lot of trouble.
“The same can be said about the black bear, but grizzlies are more confrontational, in my experience.”
What If The Bear Falls In Love? Northeast Wyoming resident Owen Miller, an experienced bear hunter, agreed that using a bear costume to try scaring bears here wouldn’t be a good idea.
Aside from the risk of getting mauled, there’s another — perhaps even worse —possibility of how things could go wrong, Miller told Cowboy State Daily.
“Just don’t try it during mating season, unless you can outrun a bear,” he said.
Noted Wyoming outdoorsman Paul Ulrich concurred.
“I would not recommend trying that in a grizzly suit in Wyoming,” he told Cowboy State Daily. “Black bears are naturally reclusive and tend to shy away. But grizzlies tend to have a totally different reaction.
“You could get mauled or killed. Or, depending upon the time of year, buggered. It’s probably not a good idea.”
Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.
If it were a grizzly, he’d be expecting cubs.
Wasn’t there something by Abbott and Costello or the Three Stooges where they assumed somebody in a scary suit must be their pal but it was the real one? Sounds familiar.
You would need a Bigfoot suit for grizzlies
Old vaudeville gag, later used in movies, man in a gorilla suit and a real gorilla..................
I think that was an episode with Shemp, the 2nd banana fill in, when you couldn’t get Curly.
I think you’re right. Couldn’t find it in the Online Database of Award Winning Cinema.
LOL, the elk around here would see that and have a, shall we say “less than ideal” reaction to that joke.
Buddy would end up so trampled and gored he would WISH he were dead, if he were “lucky “ enough to survive.
Even the whitetails around here would give him serious grief.
I do NOT want to be molested by a grizzly. He can kill me, eat me and maul me but molestation would haunt me the rest of my life.
I’ve had encounters with many black bears and one grizzly. The black bears were all easily spooked and ran away. The grizzly, however, sat there and looked at me as though it were deciding whether to eat me now or save me for later. I have a pic of the encounter I should find and upload here...
I suspect that some really good theater, both comedies and dramas, still has not yet made it to an internet platform, and may never be added. Especially, when that performance comes from a show which created quite a few episodes with year long breaks in between, as that series was renewed.
There was a series rather similar to Twilight Zone, that my family loved watching all gathered around the TV. That show was One Step Beyond, hosted by John Newland. This show was mostly wrapped around psychic phenomena, vs Ghosts or Space Visitors in Twilight. My Grandmother thought the series was mildly blasphemous. I would not be surprised if some of the One Step Beyond episodes are missing from YouTube, or other forums. There was much less publicity or fuss made about this show. T’was an acquired taste.
He was trying to win the Darwin award! Even black bears Wil. Attack other bears! One fool proof way to scare foff bears thiugn is show them a life-size cutout of Rosie O’Donnell
Not all black bears run- videos of bears stalking folks back or the person’s vehicles despite the people trying to scare them off- some videos of mountain lions too
‘He’s Lucky It Wasn’t A Wyoming Grizzly’
Or a Kodiak bear or a polar bear.
Or he could get himself shot.
I’ll try that costume as my pajamas and scare away any intruders with it. Good idea.
Oh the outrage! How dare the reporter mis-species Mr. Clark as a “man”. He clearly identifies as a bear and should be respected as such.
Doesn’t matter what a grizzly would have done.
It wasn’t in Wyoming it was in NC.
“Bear suits are funny; bears as well.”
—Christopher Walken
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