How about "none of the above"? Horses, cows, and deer can rub up against hives, using them as scratching posts, and knocking the hives over. The dead give-away would be small amounts of hair caught in joints and under nails at the corners of the hive bodies, but I'm surprised that no herbivore spoor or tracks were found near the hives. Herbivores trend to trample the grass. I agree that it would be rare for a bear to neatly tip over 6 hives, damaging nothing in each case. Most bear would at least leave a few claw scratches on the pushed surfaces, if not grab some sort of snack. The unique thing about humans is that they tend to be consistent, pushing over ALL the hives in the yard, and pushing them in the same direction, as they would push and then run away to the same place a "safe distance away" each time. They also tend to only attempt such shenanigans on nights that are moonlit. Last weekend, the moon was a mere sliver. Unless the hives were clearly visible from a road, humans would be a long shot in my view. Mike Palmer's bears in VT might have different tastes than our bears in VA, mostly due to the better class of garbage put out by all those rich city folk that moved to VT, but one can often find the odd frame of honey left untouched by a bear, while one will never find any untouched brood frames. The focus on "Hunny" was nothing but the work of a good PR guy. Winnie The Pooh would have been a far less sympathetic character if he was revealed to like to eat wiggly, squishy, squirmy larvae. jim (Side effects may include loss of hair, loss of keys, asphyxia, dyslexia, anorexia, osteoporosis, anaphylaxis, acariasis...) :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: -- Visit www.honeybeeworld.com/BEE-L for rules, FAQ and other info --- ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::