How a Vermont game warden got a bear out of the attic at a Stowe condominium

On July 16, Game Warden Jeremy Schmid got a call from the Stowe Police Department saying a bear had climbed a two-story deck at a condominium development near downtown and now found itself in the attic. Oh boy.

This was a new one for Schmid, even though he’s on the frontlines of human/bear conflicts in the Underhill patrol district he covers, which includes towns from Bolton to Cambridge, as well as Chittenden County and Grand Isle County when he’s needed. Game wardens, like many professions, are in short supply.

Unfortunately, bear invasions of homes are on the rise in Vermont. Jaclyn Comeau, the Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department’s lead bear biologist, said in an email there have been at least 30 successful and attempted home entries by bears this year in Vermont. Ten years ago, Comeau said, there were only one to four reports a year.

Bear in the attic

When he arrived on the scene in Stowe, Schmid talked to the police officers, who confirmed the bear was still in the attic. Schmid consulted maintenance workers at the condominium to get the layout of the attic, which was empty, with only rafters and trusses and blown insulation − no people. Schmid had police evacuate the top two condo units where the bear was, as well as a neighboring unit.

“I ended up going into the attic via the condo unit where the bear was,” Schmid said.

Peeking into the pitch black attic with his flashlight, Schmid saw the bear in question lying down, facing away from him, next to the hole it had climbed through. He judged the bear to be about 175 pounds, a mature adult, based on how far apart its ears were. Schmid had no way of knowing whether the bear was male or female.

“It was warm in that attic, over 100 degrees,” Schmid said.

Schmid’s first idea was to hit the bear with a non-lethal rubber wildlife defense round, hoping it would climb down the opening it had used to reach the attic.

“That was not the case,” he said. “It ran across the attic, did a small loop and came back to where it was. I was 15 yards from it. It looked right at me.”

When all else fails, bang on the ceiling with your flashlight

Time for Plan B. Schmid decided to go into the condo directly below the bear and try to encourage it to come down by making its entrance hole larger to create an inviting exit hole.

“I was about to do it when I could hear the bear right above me, breathing,” Schmid said. “I decided not to do that.”

Instead Schmid began banging on the ceiling of the condo with his flashlight, directly below where he knew the bear was.

“I could hear it move around, getting restless,” Schmid said. “I backed up and saw paws come through the ceiling.”

That’s when Schmid started filming his video from behind the closed sliding doors of the condo. He had two maintenance people with him and told them not to move.

“Bears have keen eyesight,” Schmid said. “Us being below, even though we were inside it may have not come down.”

As the bear continued to descend, Schmid went out on the deck to make sure it got all the way to the ground. He had two Stowe police officers keeping everyone away. Once the bear hit the ground, Schmid hit it with another non-lethal rubber wildlife defense round to make sure it returned to the woods.

Of course it was a bird feeder that caused the whole mess

Why was the bear in the attic? Schmid said a bird feeder hanging from the deck ceiling was to blame, as is so often the case. Bears love bird seed and will go to great lengths to get it. Obviously.

“My thoughts on why it went into the attic are that it couldn’t comfortably reach the bird feeder from the railing so it climbed into the attic to reach down to the feeder,” Schmid said. “The feeder had gotten knocked down. I never saw it, to be honest. I learned from homeowners it was there. It was empty, supposedly.”

After the bear had safely retreated to the woods, Schmid met with maintenance workers and “folks that run the place,” to advise them to make sure all garbage and compost was secured, that everyone was locking their doors and windows, and that all bird feeders were secured and put away.

“Obviously that incident and video shows the extent of what a bear will do to gain access to a food source,” Schmid said. “My day to day is dealing with nuisance bears. The majority of these problems are human-induced, whether it’s not securing your garbage, not securing your compost, or feeding birds or other wildlife. It takes the community, and the state as a whole, to come together to try to mitigate this problem. These are all human-induced problems.”

Contact Dan D’Ambrosio at 660-1841 or ddambrosio@freepressmedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @DanDambrosioVT.