‘They took my floatie!’: Family watches as mother bear, five cubs have backyard pool party

TORONTO – It’s a scene familiar to so many of us: a mother and her kids, playing in the backyard on a hot summer day. They take turns going for a swim, play with the inflatable pool toys, take turns on the slide, and play with the garden hose.

Of course, it’s remarkable when the family in question is a family of bears.

A New Jersey family posted several videos to social media Monday showing a momma bear and her five cubs relaxing in their backyard in Rockaway Township this past Monday.

Tim Basso and his two young daughters provide humorous commentary as the bears enjoy an afternoon by the pool so idyllic it could be a cliché.

“They took my floatie!” one of the Basso kids can be heard saying at one point, as a bear cub takes hold of her favorite inflatable toy – which, you might imagine, doesn’t end too well for the toy.

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The way the bear family enjoys themselves is both a cute and in some ways intriguing mirror of human behavior: playing by the swing set, going down the slide, poking around the garden hose, and just playing with one another on the lawn.

And of course, the constant attraction of the family swimming pool.

“I don’t know, sweetie, I think our pool is shot,” Tim Basso jokes to his daughter when she asks how dirty the pool might be after having playing host to five black bears.

Eventually, the bears meander off on their own, seemingly content from their afternoon in the sun.

It’s been a banner week for bears enjoying themselves in backyard pools (while humans look on with their cameras in strange bemusement) after a black bear took a relaxing dip in a North Vancouver couple’s pool and hot tub earlier this week.

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And while this scene is heartwarming enough to make the Bernstein Bears nervous, it’s important to remember that the danger to human beings is increased by the presence of bear cubs. A mother bear in the presence of her cubs is much more likely than a solitary bear to be aggressive towards humans when confronted.

So if a bear family should descend on your home and start playing in your backyard, treat them like you would any other family of massive, hairy strangers: stay inside and call the authorities.

Oh, and bust out the camera while you’re at it – cuteness like this doesn’t come around every day.