I have always wondered why people at the Portal don't use bear spray on the bears there. My experience in Colorado Springs with numerous bears around the houses in our area is that bear spray works very well. We had a bear up our apple tree some 15 feet from where I was when I sprayed it. It quickly dropped down out of the tree and ran away. Never saw another bear up the apple tree after that. Only problem was the spray drifted back and nailed me too.
Another time a couple of years later a bear was in our driveway and up an oak tree eating acorns and breaking branches off the tree. One close range spray, maybe 10 feet away, got the bear out of the tree and it ran off into the woods. Like the bear, I learned and avoided the spray drifting back to me this time.
Finally a neighbor used spray on a bear sampling his hummingbird feeder (actually it is best to take them down at night) and the bear ran off and apparently did not bother the feeder again although it or another bear did enjoy sitting in their pond which is well away from the feeder location.
It may just be that people at the Portal just enjoy having the bears around and everyone co exists!
