Young bear spotted relaxing on a hammock in a Vermont yard

WAITSFIELD, Vt.– Noah and Kristen Dweck have seen a number of black bears around their Vermont home, but this was a first: a bear relaxing in their hammock.

Noah Dweck captured iPhone video Tuesday of two young bears in their Waitsfield yard, one of which sat in the swinging hammock before chasing them away.

“It was cute. It was a funny sight,” he told the Associated Press.

Dweck said he was sitting at a desk with the screen doors open at their home near Sugarbush Ski Area when he heard the jingle of the hammock. Then he realized there was no wind.

“So I knew right away it was the bears,” he said. He ran upstairs and looked out the window and saw one bear looking curiously at the other bear hanging out in the hammock, he said. He took some iPhone videos and scared the bears away. Burlington TV channel WPTZ first reported the sighting.

“We live in a very active bear basin. The bears are very used to human contact, so I assume they have found other people’s hammocks before,” Dweck said. “To be honest, it was quite impressive that he didn’t fall off, or she didn’t fall off the hammock, and pretty much knew how to do it. It was quite funny to see.”

Vermont has a healthy population of black bears, and sightings and incidents involving the animals have increased in recent years.