A homeowner in South Carolina was shocked to discover that a black bear had approached her house and rung the doorbell in the early hours of one recent morning.
Wendy Watson of Greenville County, in the north-west part of South Carolina, found out that the animal had paid her a visit around 3.30am when she had been fast asleep in bed.
After striding onto the veranda of her home, the bear pressed his nose against the glass of her front door and then politely rang the bell to see if anyone was in, rather than attempting to bash the door down or gain entry by other means.
When no-one responded, he gave a little huff and strode off. Wendy, though, had been none the wiser, only realising that she'd had a well-mannered visitor on her doorcam after noticing a couple of damaged bird feeders in the morning.
“It did not go ding-dong,” she said, in explanation of the bear’s impatience.
“I think I might’ve have screamed a little like ‘Oh my gosh!’”
Wendy has since named the bear “Boo-Boo” and replaced her damaged bird-feeders.
Many took to Twitter to pass comment on the funny tale, with one person writing: “The new Netflix adaptation of Goldilocks looks good”, while another added: “Great, now someone is going to pull out the statistics on black bear crime.”
And there was also: “Such a polite bear.”
There are thought to be around 1,000 black bears in the state of South Carolina, with the majority of them living towards the western side near the heavily-forested southern tip of the Appalachian Mountains.
The rest can be found in the coastal areas, although they are more populous in North Carolina, with between 7,000 to 8,000 residing there.
