Generally speaking, giving wild animals lots of space is never a bad idea. Even though most critters, like squirrels and birds, have no qualms about coexisting with people, other animals may not feel the same way. Besides, giving animals personal space in their homes is just the respectful thing to do!<\/p>\n
Sometimes, however, animals find their way to our homes instead. This happens all the time to New Jersey resident Susan Kehoe, who has spent decades befriending the black bears who live in the woods around her house. On March 20, one particularly polite bear<\/a> sat down on her porch and asked for back scratches like a perfect gentleman!<\/p>\n Susan interacted with this massive bear <\/a>as if he were the neighbor’s dog stopping by to say hello! To her, visits from her ursine friends are just another perk of living in the woods, but to everyone else, this would be a once-in-a-lifetime experience\u2014especially if the bear got too close.<\/p>\n “And…this is how I die,” agreed @sygourney. In most cases, that would likely be the case, but for bear whisperer Susan, there seems to be some kind of agreement between her and the bears. They seem to know she’s a friend!<\/p>\n Related: Black Bear Tries to Get Into Back Yard Hammock Like He’s Ready for a Good Snooze<\/a><\/p>\n @Stephanieadams96 wrote, “Susan, it\u2019s just not fair at this point. Can you save some of the bear distribution for the rest of us?” She enjoys daily visits from her black bear neighbors<\/a> when they’re not foraging for food or hibernating during the winter, and her followers can’t get enough.<\/p>\n Clearly, this itchy bear can’t get enough, either! He particularly enjoyed chin scratches from the toy rake, though he also looked like he was curious enough to grab it and use it himself. Maybe that’s the next step!<\/p>\n Black Bears & People<\/p>\n As shocking as Susan and her bear neighbors’ relationship<\/a> may be, it’s important to remember that they are the exception. In general, black bears are not aggressive toward people, but they aren’t safe to approach, either. Most black bears will waste no time running away if they hear or see a human!<\/p>\n Still, unexpected black bear encounters can happen. If you ever run into a black bear in the woods, it’s important for hikers to be calm, confident, and slow. Speak to the bear and slowly wave<\/a> your arms to help them identify you as human, and move in the opposite direction of the animal at a sideways angle. This isn’t threatening to the bear, and allows you to keep an eye on them at all times.<\/p>\n Black bears do not want to attack or even interact with people, and they typically only do so when they feel threatened. Luckily, appreciating bears from a distance (or even from the safety of a screen) keeps everyone safe and happy.<\/p>\n \ud83d\udc36<\/a>SIGN UP to get \u201cpawsitivity\u201d delivered right to your inbox with inspiring & entertaining stories about our furry & feathered friends<\/a>\ud83d\udc3e\ud83d\udc3e<\/a><\/p>\n This story was originally published by PetHelpful<\/a> on Mar 26, 2026, where it first appeared in the Pet News<\/a> section. Add PetHelpful as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Generally speaking, giving wild animals lots of space is never a bad idea. Even though most critters, like…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":547598,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[188308,16405,79,160557,39691,201],"class_list":["post-547597","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-bear-whisperer","tag-black-bears","tag-science","tag-susan-kehoe","tag-wild-animals","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547597","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=547597"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547597\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/547598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=547597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=547597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=547597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}