Bears get a handle on opening car doors – but could it be their downfall?

William Hefner was on his honeymoon with his new wife Sara, driving back to their rented condo in the mountains above Gatlinberg, Tennessee, when he first saw the bear. At first, he said, he thought it was a huge dog nosing around. They followed it in the car; Hefner started videoing.

As he watched in amazement, the bear reared onto its hind legs, niftily pulled the handle of a parked car, and opened the door. “He walked up to the car and opened it like he owned it – hopped right in,” Hefner said. “He seemed like he knew what he was doing … It was a shock, it was hard to believe. But after your nerves calm down and you realise the animal isn’t gonna maul you, it was kinda neat, kinda cool to see that.”

Hefner is not alone. A quick search YouTube reveals dozens of such encounters caught on camera. Katie Baker, who lives in Turkey, California, a little way from Lake Tahoe, said a bear managed to open the rear door of her Toyota Rav4 and climb inside to eat the entirety of a 30lb bag of dog food that had been left in the car overnight. “He had opened the door without scratching it, there wasn’t even a mark,” she said.