In a battle of nerves between a bear and a pig, you might think the bear would be the clear winner, but this weekend in East Sooke the script was flipped.
Crystal Walls says she was on holiday in Oregon and got a call from her house sitter about a problem in the animal pen.
“She went down in the morning and noticed that the animals weren’t kind of coming to the fence like they normally do,” Walls told CHEK News. “And she was a little worried, so she called one of our neighbours who came up and discovers that there was a breach in the fence, the fence was knocked over.”
She rushed to her East Sooke home, checked the cameras, found footage of a bear in with the animals around 4:30 a.m. on Sunday morning, and saw a surprising encounter with a pig.
In one clip, the bear can be seen walking up slowly to her pig: Barbie Q. When the bear gets right up to the pig, Barbie charges at the bear, who jumps and runs off.
“We were actually surprised when the bear approached Barbie that she just stood there. We have sheep, goats, we have another pig, and they were kind of in another area of the pen just running back and forth on the fence line,” Walls said.
“I could not believe she was that close in allowing the bear to go up to her and not running away.”
Barbie Q has been known to be territorial with people and other animals. Christy Brookes, a family friend, says she’s been chased down by Barbie Q a few times.
“I think partially she was protecting all the animals, but I think Barbie just likes to be the boss and she’ll try to be the boss of anyone,” said Walls.
“I love her, and I wish she felt the same way, but she does not.”
Moments later, the bear can be seen sitting down and waving its paw to Barbie Q as if trying to create a truce.
“Winnie-the-Pooh! Piglet and Pooh Bear,” said Walls.
She says the bear was in the pen for about half an hour before it got out, damaging several fences.
When they got home, all other animals were well and accounted for.
For three years of her life, Barbie Q was a “house pig” and lived in the house with the family. Walls says she lived in the house, slept in her bed, went on camping trips and could even do tricks. When she got older, they moved her outside so she could “act more like a pig.”
“We also fostered 27 cats, and she always took to the cats, the kittens would climb all over her when she was in the house,” Walls said. “I don’t know if it’s just kind of a mothering thing to protect everyone else.”
Barbie Q does have one weakness, however.
“We have a goat named Gus, and she’s terrified of the goat. Which is probably a tenth of the size of the bear,” said Walls.
This was the family’s first encounter with a bear on their property in the eight years they’ve lived there. They plan on adding an electric fence to prevent future predators from entering.
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Watch the encounter below:
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Laura Brougham
Oli Herrera
