Most people wouldn’t be so calm if a bear visited their property, but for one man, instead of scaring it away, he decided to do the opposite. In the process he and the bear became friends.
In this part of America, black bears are known to be very common and comfortable with humans.
In Asheville, North Carolina, the population of bears is booming, and in turn, they have come to live with the people, it seems. For Patrick Conley, starting in the late summer of 2017, a bear family started visiting him regularly, almost becoming like family themselves.
In this video, we see the bear Patrick named Simone come out of the woods to say hello. This is a usual occurrence for Patrick but what she was bringing with her was a huge surprise. Following behind her was her first litter of cubs!
Patrick couldn’t believe his eyes when he saw the cubs and even wrote in the video’s description that they were the cutest things ever to walk these woods, but he is biased. Simone has become like a close friend to Patrick, so seeing these cubs is like seeing a new family member.
Simone is so comfortable she walks right onto the porch with the cubs following right behind.
Making it even more obvious that Simone is extremely comfortable with Patrick and finds this human to be her friend, she walks onto his porch. The cubs are a little more cautious, considering they’ve never been here before, but they trust their mama.
Eventually, all three bears are on the porch saying hello, and Patrick is just completely in awe. It is amazing to see what is usually an animal that doesn’t interact with humans be so friendly. After some time, the three bears leave the porch and walk across the street to climb a tree for a little bit.
The cubs are getting used to the world and are having a good time exploring
Both of the cubs run to the nearest tree to climb and play with each other, but the mama bear stays close behind. After a while of roaming, climbing, and playing, Simone tells her fresh cubs it is time to go home. The three head back to the forest to go home.
Patrick notes that Simone is looking well-fed, and considering how close they all got to him, they will be back soon, which he looks forward to.
Tune in to see their relationship from the start
If you want to see this man’s experience with these bears from the beginning, check out his YouTube channel.
Luckily for us, we can watch Patrick’s journey with the bears from the beginning, and it’s an amazing journey to watch. The mother, now grandmother, a bear named Maïté, has three bears: her hefty son Maurice, shy Solange, and Simone, who we see in the video.
Now Patrick has to come up with two more names for the brand new editions to the family. What a beautiful encounter with nature that got caught on film.