Bear rummages sugarhouse for syrup and eats syrup

Bear story. Sugarmaker Paul Zononi shows a gallon of syrup chewed up by a bear that snuck into the sugarhouse this spring.
A bear chewed through syrup jugs at Paul's Sugarhouse in Williamsburg, Mass. this spring, drinking the contents of syrup jugs.

A bear steals syrup from Mass. sugarmaker

WILLIAMSBURG, Mass.—Making maple means dealing with wildlife from time to time, but typically that happens in the woods, not the sugarhouse.

Sugarmaker Paul Zononi lost a couple gallons of syrup to a bear with a sweet tooth, after one snuck into the sugarhouse this spring.

“I get to the sugarhouse one morning and there’s syrup all over the floor,” Zononi said.

He had left a back sliding door open to load firewood and that is how the bear got inside.

The bear chewed through the plastic jug and punctured it with holes, then apparently lapped the spilled syrup off the floor.

Then the bear snagged another jug off the shelf and somehow dragged it down to the river behind the sugarhouse and drank it all.

Zononi and his wife, Serena, said they would be closing off the open-ended back side of the sugarhouse from now on.

P.O. Box 88
Rupert, VT 05768
Phone/Text: 518.692.2204
E-mail: themaplenews@icloud.com