X

Bear Crashes Child's Birthday Party, Eats Bagels and Cupcakes

This gentle giant went straight for the picnic table.

Monisha Ravisetti Former Science Writer
Monisha Ravisetti was a science writer at CNET. She covered climate change, space rockets, mathematical puzzles, dinosaur bones, black holes, supernovas, and sometimes, the drama of philosophical thought experiments. Previously, she was a science reporter with a startup publication called The Academic Times, and before that, was an immunology researcher at Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York. She graduated from New York University in 2018 with a B.A. in philosophy, physics and chemistry. When she's not at her desk, she's trying (and failing) to raise her online chess rating. Her favorite movies are Dunkirk and Marcel the Shell with Shoes On.
See full bio
Monisha Ravisetti
2 min read
A closeup of black bear with a gentle-looking face, seen in the woods.

A black bear that looks a lot like this one was just looking for some snacks. 

 Getty Images

It was a lovely Sunday afternoon in West Hartford, Connecticut, when a bear sauntered into a 2-year-old's birthday party, uninvited. Thankfully, the fluffy black brute just wanted some snacks. 

Recalling the shocking incident that occurred on Sept. 4, Laura Majidian, mother of birthday boy Cyrus, told local station WTNH News that she noticed the bear come out of the woods mid-festivities and promptly started grabbing children by the "armful" to get them to safety. 

Watch the family's video here.

At the time, Cyrus and his friends were in the middle of dancing to music and running around -- you know, classic birthday party shenanigans.

"All the grownups, we were screaming at the bear," Rauf Majidian, Cyrus' father, told HLN's Weekend Express. But, as Majidian puts it, "he wasn't fazed."

Nope. The bear instead tiptoed over to the picnic table, where a tiered cupcake tray was located, then started chowing down on the sweets -- and in a rather dignified manner, if you ask me. The family told NBC Connecticut the bear dipped into the bagels and lox as well. Rauf Majidian posted video of the incident to Facebook.  

Though this particular bear interaction appears to be an isolated incident for the Majidian family, Laura Majidian said such bear sightings aren't uncommon in her neighborhood. 

"Sometimes we have one in the early morning, like on trash day," she said. "Two nights after the party, I saw the bear when we were going out for a walk."

This year alone, in fact, there have been more than 8,000 bear sightings in Connecticut, according to a wildlife sightings map from the state's Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, or DEEP. 

And the animals' presence appears to be on the rise in the state, but why? One part of the equation might be climate change, a crisis that's exacerbated by human activities. 

On the note of food hunting, DEEP says "climatic factors, such as drought, may result in a food shortage, causing bears to travel many miles in search of food." The agency describes black bears as generally shy, secretive and fearful of humans. But if these animals find food around, it says, "they can lose their fear of humans."

Now, per WTNH News, the Majidian family is worried their recent experience could represent "the new normal." Though on the bright side, DEEP also says that black bears are "seldom aggressive toward humans, even when cubs are present."

"A little scared, I'm a little freaked out," Laura Majidian said, "but everyone was safe."