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Thread: Da Bears

  1. #1
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    Default Da Bears

    There are an inconceivable amount of bears this year. Instead of the usual once a month sighting, we are seeing them every other day or so now. Big bears. Little bears. Medium sized bears. Goldilocks would be bear shit with the quickness bears.

    Odder still is that the bears have taken on a new, if you will bear with me, bearing. If they used to be at a 10 on a 1-10 scale of how afraid of people they usually are, with 10 being terrified and 1 being you get eaten, they are at a 4. Same with their fear of dogs.

    The only quantifiable thing that has changed is that hogs have shown up over the last 3 years thanks to the bear hunters wanted an off season animal to chase. Could the bears learning a new food source have something to do with it? Competition for groceries maybe?

    There will likely be a massive thinning of the heard this fall. It is only a matter of time before one of them paints a target on the rest of them...

  2. #2
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    I was listening to a podcast last night that was discussing the bear boom. This fella was from Colorado but the concept applies across their range.

    Used to be the population was cyclic. Bears are delayed implanters. Which means they are bred in the spring but the embryos don’t implant until fall after the sow has fattened up all summer. Weather cycles would either create boom years of food or years where food was scarce. In the boom years last years cubs survived as well as the delayed implanters. And sows will have 1-3 cubs. Busy years last seasons cubs would die due to lack of nutrition and the sows would lose the current years embryos since they didn’t get enough nutrition to support it. In those bust years you lose 2 generations of cubs.

    What’s changed? Yankees. Subdivisions in their range. Orchards. Irrigation. Bird feeders. Dog food. Dogs. Cats. In other words bears have figured out how to eat well when nature is slack. Ergo there are no busy years and sows are having multiple cubs every year.

    They will continue to expand their range as carrying capacity become stretched thin and we will have more close in town encounters.

  3. #3
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    I get and subscribe to that, but this anomaly has had a very rapid onset. A bear that sees a human is supposed to BOLT. Seeing one crossing a road makes a deer look like a box turtle. Suddenly they stop, look at you, and saunter up the hill or down the road. Seeing them at all hours of the day walking around your house. Now, once in a while you would have A bear that was bolder than the rest. This summer it is the high majority. I can't discount that there has been some sort of tipping point, but what? If anything, development in our area has slowed since 2006. Large tracts of land have been conserved or made into parks. Immediately, we have 50,000 acres of protected lands which join a lot more with large wildlife corridors.

    Thinking a bit about it, there has been a pretty large upswing in the number of humans mountain biking and hiking the last few years. I would guess at 500% increase there. Bears are certainly encountering more people on their own turf who are not trying to kill them for the first time...

  4. #4
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    have you called WIS?

  5. #5
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    Quote Originally Posted by JABIII View Post
    I get and subscribe to that, but this anomaly has had a very rapid onset. A bear that sees a human is supposed to BOLT. Seeing one crossing a road makes a deer look like a box turtle. Suddenly they stop, look at you, and saunter up the hill or down the road. Seeing them at all hours of the day walking around your house. Now, once in a while you would have A bear that was bolder than the rest. This summer it is the high majority. I can't discount that there has been some sort of tipping point, but what? If anything, development in our area has slowed since 2006. Large tracts of land have been conserved or made into parks. Immediately, we have 50,000 acres of protected lands which join a lot more with large wildlife corridors.

    Thinking a bit about it, there has been a pretty large upswing in the number of humans mountain biking and hiking the last few years. I would guess at 500% increase there. Bears are certainly encountering more people on their own turf who are not trying to kill them for the first time...
    Yep. Desensitization. Why would they be afraid of hippies they see all the time that aren’t trying to hurt them?

    More tags and more hunting opportunities are needed.

  6. #6
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    When they get to "2" start makin bear sausage.
    We gave you Corn,you gave us clap,bad trade.

  7. #7
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    Still hunting them needs to become a thing around here.

  8. #8
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    Say when

  9. #9
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    I'd get a permit.
    "Only accurate rifles are interesting " - Col. Townsend Whelen

  10. #10
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    Oddly you mention this, one caught in Boiling Springs recently and my buddy sent me a picture of one in his BS backyard, after the one was removed. They have also been in my neighborhood in Inman recently.
    Low country redneck who moved north

  11. #11
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    Hard to drink a beer while still hunting. Set up a tree stand near a dumpster and you're good to go.
    We gave you Corn,you gave us clap,bad trade.

  12. #12
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  13. #13
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    Over here in hell, the bear sightings , trap/ transfer deal is on the increase. Bears have been seen well inside the ATL Perimeter with recent "aggressive" bear captures happening in Clarkston, Decatur and other downtown Atlanta areas.. Every once in a while a large size bear will be hit on the downtown connector..

    The bears here follow the Chattahoochee river corridor down from the their normal range for sure. Usually it's young boars looking for their own territory.. I think they are cool critters, but definitely can be destructive and scary to some folks.
    F**K Cancer

    Just Damn.

  14. #14
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    Quote Originally Posted by Glenn View Post
    I was listening to a podcast last night that was discussing the bear boom. This fella was from Colorado but the concept applies across their range.

    Used to be the population was cyclic. Bears are delayed implanters. Which means they are bred in the spring but the embryos don’t implant until fall after the sow has fattened up all summer. Weather cycles would either create boom years of food or years where food was scarce. In the boom years last years cubs survived as well as the delayed implanters. And sows will have 1-3 cubs. Busy years last seasons cubs would die due to lack of nutrition and the sows would lose the current years embryos since they didn’t get enough nutrition to support it. In those bust years you lose 2 generations of cubs.

    What’s changed? Yankees. Subdivisions in their range. Orchards. Irrigation. Bird feeders. Dog food. Dogs. Cats. In other words bears have figured out how to eat well when nature is slack. Ergo there are no busy years and sows are having multiple cubs every year.

    They will continue to expand their range as carrying capacity become stretched thin and we will have more close in town encounters.
    I seent it too (with my ears). Nicely summarized. The buffets also make it easier for all 3 sows to survive.

  15. #15
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    We saw four in two days of birdwatching on the Parkway. One was a crepy, sulking thing that stayed kind of close but mostly hidden in the understory. I was happy to get back to the car. If I going to fight off a bear with a camera I want a lens bigger than a 70-200mm...
    Ephesians 2 : 8-9



    Charles Barkley: Nobody doesn't like meat.

  16. #16
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    Quote Originally Posted by Rubberhead* View Post
    We saw four in two days of birdwatching on the Parkway. One was a crepy, sulking thing that stayed kind of close but mostly hidden in the understory. I was happy to get back to the car. If I going to fight off a bear with a camera I want a lens bigger than a 70-200mm...
    Surely you got some good photos in that you would like to share....

  17. #17
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    Apex Predators
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    F**K Cancer

    Just Damn.

  18. #18
    DUCKMAN is offline Moderator - Traveling Duck Assasin
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    Read an article in the Smithsonian about Black bears. It is the most widespread big game animal in North America. Alaska to Central America including all 50 states. It has replaced the whitetail deer as the most adaptive to man and is fast becoming the number one nuisance animal in all of North America. Attacks which were rare are becoming more common.
    DUCKMAN<br /><br />\"If you love waterfowl - support DU and the Flyway Foundation!!\"

  19. #19
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    This nice color phase came off my place in WA. He had to go as he had no fear of humans. Shot by a 10 year old girl with a Tikka 243 and a 100 grain Corelokt. He was 7 years old and weighed 505.

    Rolling fat from eating pears all summer. He was strong enough to pull fence wire off the posts and sauntered right in - scaring the picking crew more than once.
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    F**K Cancer

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  20. #20
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    He made a nice room addition for sure.
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    F**K Cancer

    Just Damn.

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