Bears are wild animals that most people consider dangerous. A male black bear can weigh as much as 600 pounds, while female bears weigh about 200 pounds. These huge animals can cause severe harm if they attack a person. This is a good enough reason to keep our distance from bears.
On the other hand, there’s Susan Kehoe who is living in extraordinary conditions.
Instead of staying away from bears, Kehoe interacts with them almost on a daily basis.
Her special relationship with black bears began when she moved to a house bordering a state park. Soon after, bears started coming around and going near her house.
Specifically, mother bears would bring their cubs to the area surrounding her house, including right on her front porch.
“I think that they sense that they’re safe here,” Kehoe shared with Newsner.com.
She started to photograph and study them.
“Now mind you, I don’t want anybody trying this at home or doing that. But the bears accepted me as part of their clan,” she said.
Kehoe sees them every year, beginning in the spring, when they come out of hibernation. She sees a bear almost every day, including some bears who like to lie down on her porch and hang out.
Toward the end of the summer, the cubs know that they are safe around her.
She shared that a lot of people ask her how she got the bear to close her door. Kehoe said that she doesn’t know exactly how it happened.
“I had my door open, I was in the kitchen, I walked into the living room and I saw a bear,” she said.
Kehoe noticed he was sniffing the door and his mouth went hear the knob. She shouted, “Pull, pull!” The bear seemed to understand her, and he pulled the doorknob and closed the door.
She praises the bears when they do something correct or something she wants them to do.
One important thing to note is that Kehoe respects the bears and follows their lead.
She never approaches the bears unnecessarily and doesn’t invade their space.
Kehoe talks to them in a soft and soothing voice, which she thinks they pick up on. They respond to her by moving their ears and acknowledging her.
When a bear is entering her house, she tells them to stop in an abrupt and loud voice. They seem to understand her message and they stop what they’re doing and back off.
Kehoe feels that they understand that the bears are safe with her.
She shares that mom bears even leave their cubs with her while they go into the forest to forage for food.
The bears also nurse their cubs in front of her while she’s sitting on her porch, without feeling threatened or intimidated by her.
“It’s a very different life than the normal person’s. I’m 99.9% sure I’d never get hurt but there’s always a 1% with anything or anybody. To say otherwise, I would only be fooling myself and everybody else,” she said.
Kehoe considers her life complete living her unique lifestyle with her neighbors, the black bears.
Other people find her life fascinating as well, and this video has been viewed over 1.8 million times.
“Being trusted near bear cubs is amazing itself. Multiple mothers leaving their cubs unattended with you is nothing shy of a miracle. This woman is blessed,” one commenter said.
Watch Susan interact with wild bears in the video below!
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