They're here in the western Finger Lakes region and seem to be on the rise. Bears...yes...cougars...I'll have to see one to believe it! Here's a cool little bear story for ya. Friday morning one of my uncles was leaving for work and noticed that one of the 3 feed bags full of apples was gone from under the apple tree. The apples were all scattered around but the rest of the bag was missing. The tree is right outside of his bedroom window and he routinely has deer eating the apples. He couldn't believe that a deer would carry the bag off so he looked for tracks but the snow was gone around the tree and yard. Last night, one of his neighbors and her kids were driven down the road about 9:00 and noticed something standing right by my uncle's mailbox. They stopped to get a closer look and it ended up being a big ole' blackbear. Once they stopped the bear turned around and ran down the hill into the vineyards. They stopped back this morning to take pics of the tracks and told my uncle about it. The bear was no doubt coming back to get another bag of apples. He's getting his video camera ready in case it comes back. In the past few years, everyone has been seeing bears around here. Chenango county has alot more bigwoods cover than there is around here so I believe that they're should definately be bears around there. A good friend of mine lives just outside Oxford and his next door neighbor had seen a bear around his pasture several times.