Dame Helen Mirren reveals she had to chase a BEAR out of her garden after learning you should confront the creatures following move to Nevada
Dame Helen Mirren has revealed she was recently forced to confront a bear which had wandered into her garden after moving to Lake Tahoe.
The Academy Award-winning actress, 74, said she managed to chase it away by shouting ‘bad bear’ at the creature in a bid to intimate it.
Dame Helen had the hairy encounter during lockdown at her lake house in Tahoe, which straddles the states of Nevada and California and is home to the black bear.
Watch out! Dame Helen Mirren has revealed she was recently forced to confront a bear which had wandered into her garden after moving to Lake Tahoe
The star said she discovered the bear trying to eat the bird food on her property before running up to it and shouting at him.
Authorities state that in your garden it’s best to be aggressive and assert your dominance to force a bear to leave.
The Queen star told the story on a recent episode of WTF with Marc Marron.
‘Bad bear!’ The Academy Award-winning actress, 74, said she managed to chase it away by shouting ‘bad bear’ at the creature in a bid to intimate it
She said: ‘We’re in Tahoe, actually. Brilliantly, and luckily, we just finished building a house here.
‘We had just made the move from LA, literally six months before the lockdown happened.
‘So – oh my God – we got locked down in the most beautiful, one of the most beautiful, places.
Hungry? Dame Helen previously shared a snap of her bid feeder in her garden on her Instagram page, which is likely where the bear was lurking
‘We’re not right on the lake but I can see it from here. It’s really pretty.. Incredible air, and just endless entertainment by wildlife.’
Dame Helen previously shared a snap of her bid feeder in her garden on her Instagram page, which is likely where the bear was lurking.
‘Chipmunks, and golden-mantles, and squirrels and about ten different kinds of birds. I saw a bear the other day!
‘A great big black bear came by and stole all my bird food. I went out and I said: ‘Bad bear! Bad, naughty bear! Very naughty bear!’.
‘He sort of looked at me and lumbered off. He was a big black bear.
Cheeky! The star said she discovered the bear trying to eat the bird food on her property before running up to it and shouting at him
‘Funnily enough, I was just reading a book – a little pamphlet – about wildlife up here.
‘They were saying what to do if you encounter a bear – [if] it’s looking aggressively at you and hunching its back and looking like it’s about to charge.
‘They said you make yourself look as big as possible, if you can grab a stick, make yourself look big.
‘And then it literally said: ‘And then shout: Bad bear! Bad bear!’.
‘There is of course that famous stage instruction in Shakespeare, which is: ‘Exit, followed by a bear’.’