‘It was like a circus performance’: North Vancouver family captures backyard bear tossing soccer ball

A North Vancouver family is beaming with excitement after witnessing, and capturing a video, of a playful bear attracted to a soccer ball in their backyard.

Michelle Wadham said she was getting ready for work Tuesday morning around 7:30 when out of the corner of her eye she saw something moving outside the home, which is in the Princess Park area.

“I saw a bear playing with my dog’s soccer ball,” Wadham said.

“It was so cute rolling around playing with the soccer ball.”

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Wadham said she happened to have her phone handy and captured the moment, which lasted a few minutes.

“I’ve watched the video 10 times at work; I show everyone. It’s so cute,” she said.

Wadham’s father, Chris, who shared the video with Global News, said he was in his office when his daughter caught the soccer-playing bear in action.

Her mother, Diane, was making breakfast at the time and was enthusiastically called over by her daughter.

“There it was, actively playing with this ball, it sort of went to another ball first and sniffed it and went back to the soccer ball,” Diane Wadham told Global News.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "There it was, actively playing with this ball, it sort of went to another ball first and sniffed it and went back to the soccer ball," Diane Wadham told Global News.

She said the bear was deeply interested in the ball and compared the scene to a circus performance.

“That ball is what seemed to attract the bear, maybe it was the colour combination,” Diane Wadham said.

The Wadhams say they’ve seen bears in the area before, but this is the first soccer super star they’ve come across; and they say it made their day.

“It was great… It was here for three or four or five minutes, we could have easily been doing something else and we were just fortunate to have seen that,” Diane Wadham said.

She said they spot bears in the area every spring or summer, adding the animals normally go for food.

“Usually we see them almost yearly… once or twice through the spring or summer,” she said.

“Generally when we have seen bears here we say ‘get lost’ in a high pitch voice and usually it does the trick.”

But this time, the bear left on its own, taking the soccer ball with it.

“The bear enjoyed his/her time with the ball so much that they stole it and ran off with it,” she said.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "The bear enjoyed his/her time with the ball so much that they stole it and ran off with it," she said.