Fredericton resident shocked as two bears land on her second-storey deck

Susan Taplin wasn't expecting company over the long weekend, and when her cats woke her up at 5 a.m. on Saturday, she never expected to find two visitors on her deck. 

"When the motion light came on, I expected to see a raccoon," Taplin said. "I thought, 'oh, that's pretty big for a raccoon', and I looked and it was a bear cub."

It wasn't just a cub, but a mama bear. The two climbed up a beam and landed on the upper deck of her two-storey house in Fredericton.

"I just couldn't, couldn't believe it," she said.

Taplin said the two bears were trying to get to her bird feeders that were hanging on flag poles.

She said the "black and furry" bears were hustling up and down her lawn chair trying to get their paws to the feeders that were firmly hooked to the poles.

Taplin was concerned whether the bears were going to get to the feeders or break into her house through the window.

"Oh, my God ... just that kind of panic, almost thought, you know, 'OK what, how am I going to get rid of them?'"

She then realized that her feeders were safe. "They wouldn't have the hands to be able to loosen the pole from the flag holder," she said.

At one point, the larger bear came toward Taplin's door and startled her house cat, she said.

This got Taplin yelling and banging at her door, which she cracked open when the bear returned to the feeders. 

"They kind of looked up and then they were scurrying to get down."

Taplin had set off her home's security alarm, spooking the bears. 

"I'm just like, 'OK, I can feel my heart racing, but you know, that's it. they're probably gone,'" she said.

Taplin lives in Skyline Acres, a neighbourhood in an urban part of Fredericton with no proper forest nearby. But she said it is not unusual to sight wildlife.

She said one of her neighbours also had a bear visit their backyard targeting a bird feeder about six years ago. She said they typically get raccoons, foxes and deer. 

"There's a lot of more animal life here than you would see in the country sometimes because of the feeders," she laughed.

Before visiting Taplin at Skyline Acres, the bears were reported to be wandering around the Lisgar Street and Montgomery Street areas.

This had triggered a search operation involving the Fredericton Police Force and New Brunswick's Department of Natural Resources and Energy Development.

"Several officers responded," said the police in an email.

The police also confirmed on Saturday that both bears wandered back into the woods on their own.

CBC News reached out to the DNR, but did not hear back from the provincial department in publication time.

Taplin said she was glad to hear the bears had returned safe to the woods.

"This seems to be a spring thing predominantly. So they're just looking for food, I guess, as they come out of hibernation."

"Anyway, you live on their land. So sometimes you have to put up with the animals," she said.