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Black bear next to bucket of KFC fried chicken
Bears are known for being opportunists that are constantly on the hunt for an easy meal. One woman in Kentucky learned that the hard way, as she woke up to discover one had broken into her home to steal the KFC she’d left sitting on a table.
Kentucky has historically not been a hot spot for bears, as a combination of logging and hunting led to the animals becoming “virtually eliminated” within its borders toward the start of the 20th century.
However, there’s been a bit of a resurgence since the start of the 21st century, and experts believe it’s now home to upwards of 1,500 of the black variety thanks to a population that can trace its roots back to bears that wandered in from Tennessee, West Virginia, and Virginia.
The majority of those bears reside in the southeastern part of the state, which is home to Daniel Boone National Forest and other areas that make an ideal habitat.
That has also presented some problems for some residents who didn’t really have to worry about living in Bear Country until the new millennium rolled around.
Black bears are known for having an exceptional sense of smell and a blatant disregard for the concepts of trespassing and personal property, and all of those factors recently led to one of them breaking into a home in a quest for fried chicken.
A bear in Kentucky broke into a home to steal some Kentucky Fried Chicken
Black bears (the only species that can be found in Kentucky) can smell a potential food source from close to 20 miles away, and their ability to detect scents is seven times more impressive than that of a bloodhound and 2,000 times higher than that of a human being.
Their penchant for sniffing out a meal was highlighted by what transpired at a home in Harlan County on the morning of Thursday, August 13th, which was the site of a bear break-in linked to some leftover KFC.
According to WLKY, Kendra North and her husband decided to open up the front door of their house on Wednesday evening to get some fresh air due to the lack of air conditioning, and they forgot to close it before retiring for the night.
They also declined to put away the KFC that was sitting on their kitchen table, and North awoke to a frantic call from her sister (and next-door neighbor), who said she’d seen a bear she estimated weighed between 600 and 700 pounds emerge from their place in the morning.
Her sister said she was awoken by the sound of shattering glass, which turned out to be the kitchen table that broke after the bear presumably climbed onto it to snag the fried chicken that lured it inside in the first place.
North told Fox56 she’s “a little sad over my KFC” while warning people not to make the same mistake she did. That also wasn’t the only bear encounter she had that week, as she spotted a cub she guessed tipped the scales at around 300 pounds on her porch while making sloppy joes on Friday night.