Our granddaughter and her family live outside a small town in the Wisconsin countryside. We do have bears, wolves, cougars, elk and of course many other animals in the wilds of the state. We do have deer in our own yard sometimes but as far as bigger animals go, that is about it.
We did have a bear a couple of miles away a few years ago. A young, big, but inexperienced bear had blundered into a neighborhood but the dogs in the houses barked furiously and he climbed a tree for protection. He stayed up there for quite a while. I don't know if wildlife services helped him back to safer areas or what.
Heather's family found bear tracks in their yard the other day. Lynn's parents used to live down a country road in the upper Michigan peninsula and they had bears and wolves often. Once, Lynn and I were leaving their house, waving good-bye while they stood in their front yard waving and laughing. Behind their backs, a deer and a fawn ran through their yard just between them and the house. We were quite surprised and watched as the two exhausted animals flopped down in the field on the other side of the driveway. We were astounded to see then that there was no fawn: the smaller animal was a wolf, a wolf with blood all over his muzzle! After a bit of a rest, the deer rose and ran off with the wolf in pursuit. As the deer ran, we saw that one foreleg was useless and just flopped and waved erratically.
The same elderly couple had bears wreck their birdfeeders many times. Having four inch pipes that had held up a birdhouse or feeder bent and twisted was common. Heather found the same thing: a shepherd's crook of iron reshaped into a drooping loop. I am guessing the bears just want what they want: food. They aren't gentle or precise and basically just try anything that might work.
