Let me introduce you to bad, bad Bart. We found Bart when we were out kayaking at Otter Lake on Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson. He came down to the shoreline to check out what was going on and then meandered his way back up to his favorite spot, the dumpster. That's right Bart is a dumpster diver. So a couple weeks ago I gave you a little moose PSA with Frank the moose and now I am going to give a little bear PSA. Put your trash away! Lock it up! Unfortunately this particular dumpster was a bear proof one but the handle was broken so Mr. Smarty Pants Bart could still get in and once he has a decent food source he won't move on, which then poses a safety hazard for the rest of us. We drove up the road and watched Bart from our car, we tried to scare him off with our horn which didn't seem to leave much of an impression on him as you can tell from the pictures below.

He eventually got tired of our antics and decided to go for a snack in the trash bin but not before he took care of an itch that couldn't reach without help.

Once he got the itch taken care of (which my comical family put music to in our car, if you haven't seen a bear itch to rap music you haven't had a good laugh in awhile). It was time to crawl on in and grab a snack. Watching this big boy climb was so impressive!

He stopped and seemed to take a break here but I just figured he knew he was being photographed and wanted to give me a nice pose. After this he slid into the dumpster and would pop out every couple minutes to check and see if we were still hanging around.

Pretty sure there was something stinky in the bin when he came out looking like the above picture but then he seemed to give me the "don't post that pic" holler.

B144What you looking at?

So my little PSA for bears is put away your trash. If you can get bear proof containers great, make sure they are working and use them. If you are in the back country keep your food and trash separate from where you are and seal them up. We just had a bear shot up here because someone left food in the car and their windows were left open a crack so the bear shattered the window to get to the food and then became aggressive with people and they had to put him down. There are countless other stories like this one that could be avoided if people took precautions. Please be safe out there!