Hancock police reported a large black bear breaking into the kitchen of a home on Old Dublin Road on Monday.
The incident occurred around 1 a.m. Monday, according to police. The department received a voicemail Monday morning, said Police Chief Thomas Horne. There was no police involvement at the time of the incident, Horne said, and the voicemail the following morning was the first officers had heard of it.
Horne said the department decided to share a Facebook post as a precautionary measure to warn others in the area. “There were no reported injuries to the homeowners or their pets,” the post said. “The details of the incident have been reported to NH Fish and Game. Please be cautious and alert.”
Horne said that the way to stop bears from entering a home is similar to advice he’d give to keep bears out of trash.
“Bears follow the scent of food, so make sure your doors are closed or they’ll follow that scent. If there’s that barrier there, they’ll find something else,” he said.
There was apparently more than one bear encounter that night. Margot Swanson, a resident of Depot Street in Hancock, said a bear entered her home through the front door slightly after midnight in the early hours of Monday morning, but ran away when her dog barked at it and ran toward the door.
“The dog just exploded barking and ran out of the bedroom,” she said.
Swanson followed the dog and saw her front door had been opened and her storm door was just swinging shut, as if someone had just walked out. She says her door had been closed, but not locked, which led her to believe that a person had attempted to enter the house. She called the police department the next morning, and was told by a staffer on the non-emergency line that the department was aware of another home having a bear enter in the same timeframe. With this knowledge, Swanson investigated the area upon returning to her house on Monday.
“When I got home and looked, sure enough, there was a muddy bear paw print on the storm door,” she said.
Swanson believes that the current assumption is that the same bear attempted to enter these homes, based on the timing and the location of the houses. She also spoke with the state’s bear technician about her experience. Horne confirmed that there are New Hampshire Fish and Game conservation officers aware of the situation and working to mitigate the problem, he said.
“It was scary, but I was relieved it wasn’t a person,” Swanson said. “Bears don’t frighten me, although I’d prefer they didn’t come in my house.”
Andrew Timmins, bear biologist for the state Fish and Game Department, says that although bear break-ins are alarming, they are neither common nor particularly dangerous.
Timmins said that in the unlikely event someone encounters a bear in the home, he or she should make the bear aware of their presence by making noise. The bear will exit through the same opening it entered the house through, if possible. Timmins said the worst thing for people to do would be to trap a bear in the house. If the bear somehow becomes trapped, the person can try to make an exit available or call for assistance. He added that bear break-ins are typically one-time events. In addition to doors, bears can enter through windows, screens, holes in the wall or any openings that are large enough or they can make large enough.
Not many details are known of the incident in Hancock, but Timmins said that bears don’t just decide to walk into a house one day without a history of behavior. It comes from learned behaviors of finding food in the area many times, as well as motivation from the scent of food.
“People cause bears to de velop these behaviors,” he said. “The primary thing that people can do is take on some responsibility. We really recommend that people take their bird feeders down by the first of April.”
Timmins added that garbage should be kept in airtight containers inside a garage or other structure that a bear can’t get into. He also said electric fences should be used to protect chickens.
Timmins said 30 percent of bear-related incidents reported to New Hampshire Fish and Game annually have to do with garbage, 20 percent are related to bird feeders and 30 percent have to do with unprotected chickens. That makes 80 percent of bear-related issues reported annually that could be easily prevented.
“Bear-human conflicts are much easier to avoid in the first place than they are to respond to,” he said.
Timmons’ main focus as a bear biologist is to educate people on how to coexist with bears, and said that the main way to do so is for people to keep attractants like bird seed, dog food, chickens or garbage either out of their yards/porches entirely or protected.
‘I recognize a lot of people live in fear of bears,” he said. “Over the years, movies and media has made them out to be dangerous creatures, and they’re really not. They’re wild animals and should be treated with respect.”
Timmons’ final message was that if people are educated and avoid having attractants for bears to smell and follow, they will most likely have no issues with them. More information on bear safety can be found at wildlife.state.nh.us.