Only in Vermont: Naked Governor Fends Off Bears

... while protecting his bird feeders
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 14, 2012 8:15 AM CDT
Only in Vermont: Naked Governor Fends Off Bears
Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin. Do not mess with the man's bird feeders.   (Getty Images)

Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin is not going to let little things like a lack of clothes and four hungry bears get in the way of saving his bird feeders. The Burlington Free Press recounts a doozy of a tale from Montpelier this week: Shumlin spotted four bears chowing down on the bird feeders in his yard one night and ran outside, in the buff, to holler and shoo them away. "Real Vermont boys don't wear pajamas," he says. (Skivvies, either, apparently.)

The bears backed off, and Shumlin got two of the feeders inside. He went back and got the other two, and the biggest bear came running. “When I opened the door, he was on the porch and five feet from the door,” Shumlin said. “I screamed through that door." The Free Press talks to a state wildlife official on what people should do in such instances, and it's pretty much the opposite of everything Shumlin did. For the record, his own state agency warns against leaving bird feeders out at night because bears love them. (More Peter Shumlin stories.)

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