Vandals!

[Skyco]

Back about 72 or so my college roommate and I were camping in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park one November. Some people near us had gone off for the day and left food in their tent. A black bear came along and destroyed their tent getting a loaf of bread out of the remains. No amount of yelling and pot banging made any difference whatsoever to that bear.
The people eventually returned to a worthless tent, packed up and left. They were not happy, but it was their fault for not heeding the signs in the campground.
I was in the Rockies once when a raccoon stole our lunch meat right out of our ice chest, then calmly sat in a tree, took it out of the bag and ate it, dropping the bag on the ground. I have a pic of him somewhere sitting in the tree munching away...this was one of those old metal ice chests that had a cam/lever lock on the lid he undid without hesitation.


BTW I looked up the total for bear harvest/hunting in the county, there were 16 total in the last 10 years. Some years there were none and never over 3. Wow- and I had 2 at once! Bear season starts on the 12th.......
One county deeper in the mountains had over 800 in the same period, with quite few over 500!

http://www.ncwildlife.org/Wildlife_Species_Con/Black_Bear/Mountain_Bear_Harvest.pdf

 

[dave1949]

No amount of yelling and pot banging made any difference whatsoever to that bear.

Yeah, I think in my case the bear wasn't going to let a scrawny 8 yr old beat him out of his lunch.

Park bears probably aren't all that spooked by people. And like you say, if you leave food around, you've got it coming.

I just looked up the Maine bear harvest. 2,719 for the state in 2008. Two in my town. More bears further north on the paper company lands.

Until 4 yrs ago, the harvest was averaging close to 3,700. Lot of debate recently about allowing hunting over bait. (Usually a pile of day old bakery goods you train the bear to eat from before hunting season begins.) There are limits on when you can begin putting out the bait. Maine hunting laws are based upon the concept of 'fair chase', which is debatable when you are piling up old donuts.

Dave.

 

[silverdollar6]

which is debatable when you are piling up old donuts.




Careful you don`t catch a cop.

 

[irvingj]

Skyco-- as Ive been having some problems with nigh visitors lately... I've considered a "game cam" set-up.

What's yours? Any suggestions? (Seems like there's a boatload of choices out there, some of which aren't worth much, apparently.)

 

[Thomas]

There's good chance they shall return,and be carefull you don't have food smell etc. on cam or you my not have cam..bear destory one of my game cam

Both of my game have been improve for longer life.

 

[Skyco]

irving J

The bear pics were taken with an IR (no visible flash) Moultrie. here-MOULTRIE GAME SPY 4.0 IR GAME CAMERA



I also have an older Moultrie with a visible flash. similar to the one here-MOULTRIE GAME SPY 4.0 GAME CAMERA except mine is older runs on 6v lantern batteries and is lower pixel count.



I picked up a $100 IR unit at Sams Club a few weeks back, it was terrible and I returned it. here it is at Academy- WILDVIEW TGL3IR GAME CAMERA

Then I bought a $89 IR at Academy here- WILDGAME INNOVATIONS 4.0MP IR DIGITAL GAME CAMERA it works ok for the money, certainly a low price for an IR unit. Way better than the one above.
Biggest complaint is it runs on C cells, I hate C cells, rather have AA or D since they are much more common.

 

[irvingj]

Thanks Skyco, I've bookmarked it. Thomas--- directions! Gotta come over & see your camera set-up! PM me-- WBB

 

[Skyco]

Well a different set of bears appeared and again knocked over the water tank, they broke a 1 inch nylon strap to do it too.
I had repositioned the camera to include the water tank.
I have been puzzled what the fascination is with the water tank until it hit me.
I keep it covered with a black plastic trash bag to prevent sun damage to the tank, I think the bears have learned to associate trash bag with food
This time one of them chewed the spigot off and spilled all the water and bit a hole in the hose.

Anyway it is now uncovered so we'll see if they leave it alone.

 

[RadarTech]

Hey Skyco...
I live right up the road in Saluda...
I drive to Inman 3-4 times a week for work...

We really need to catch up and meet sometime.. Maybe I can swing by your place and check it for you from time to time...


Sorry to hear about the damage.. where I live we had a single bear that seems to have disappeared......... rumors abound about why....


Later,
J

 

[jinman]

Skyco, I think I'd spray the insides of some plastic bags with some pure cleaning ammonia and leave those sitting around. That way, maybe the bears will attack those and get a blast of ammonia that will retrain them to associate displeasure with plastic bags. Don't know for sure. . . .