Berries and Bears

Took the canoe out yesterday - for about the first time this summer. I've been laid up with injuries, and haven't been able to do much for a while, but feeling stronger, I decided it was time to check up on the berries.

I paddled to the end of the lake and up the river to a spot that burned a couple of years ago. I figured this year the berry picking would be pretty good there and it was so. The berries were thick as I've ever seen them. In a couple of hours I had a gallon and a half of blueberries. About then, working my way around a balsam tree, I ran into a bear, snout to snout. The bear went "Woof"! So did I, and we each took off in opposite directions.

I decided to get back in the canoe and check another spot two miles up river where there is usually good raspberry picking. As I got out of the canoe, I saw more bears, a sow and two cubs. I decided to leave the raspberries to them.

There will soon be blueberry pie at Hunter Lake, but the raspberry pie will have to wait for another day.

RBB,now that sucks! But at least he ran the other way:eek:
No bears where I've been picking berries !

Oh you're lucky with the berries (and bears)! Too dry here this year.
I ran into a black bear sow with cubs at a kill earlier this summer, that was interesting...nothing happened, the dogs listened and came, the cubs went up some trees, and the momma just stood and waited for us to leave. I went back the next day to investigate, and the dogs told me that the bear had followed us a couple hundred yards after we left. Probably to make sure we weren't sneaking up to steal the moose calf she had killed (or was eating, at least).

I would take either this year. All are gone and a nice hail storm cleaned the blackberries, perfect timing. No decent blueberries here. We have a smaller version we call huckleberries and with the copperheads extra plentiful this year the few we had weren't worth the trouble. A mild winter gave us more yellow jackets, wasps, snakes and other things this year. My "attack" beagle even sits with his back to a wall.

I've always admire bears efficiency when it comes to berry patches. If a bears been through, you're not likely to find a single berry.

I was blueberry picking when I was about 14 (tv was black and white, coffee was percolated, dinosaurs roamed the earth) and I had like half an ice cream pail full about 10:30 in the morning and I heard this faint little "ugh" noise and looked up and there's this big old sow black and her baby walking slowly into the patch from the other side. I just stood up and walked quietly, backwards, out of the patch into the bush. I went back that evening just for a look, the bears were gone and so were the berries.

Bears and berries go hand in hand. But almost always there is nothing to fear as long as you keep your head about you - the bears have been in the area all along only you may have not noticed them before.

In northern climates bears rely upon a rich berry harvest to help get fat for the winter. In fact, you can thank the bears for helping to spread berry seeds and increase the numbers of berry plants you have available for harvest.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by RobertRogers

Bears and berries go hand in hand. But almost always there is nothing to fear as long as you keep your head about you.

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...once your head comes off, you know the bear stopped holding hands with the berries and it's too late to worry! :D :D :D

No! no! no! no! no! This is the kind of advice that will get someone (like me!) killed.

Awwww. Look at the bears. You know, I read once that you can hand feed berries to bears. I think that's what it said. Let's find out. Here beeeeeaaaaaaaar. Look at the berries. Look how fast he coming. He must really like berries!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by RobertRogers

In fact, you can thank the bears for helping to spread berry seeds and increase the numbers of berry plants you have available for harvest.

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That's absolutely correct Robert and it's quite an effective spreader that they have :eek:

and the spreader puts the seeds out with fertilizer attached.

This guy wasn't giving up his berries!

This bear was killed on Hitchenbrook Island by an airman stationed at Elmendorf air base.
Bear measured 10' 6' and estimated to be between 1000 to 1200 lbs, the guy was walking to his hunting area and the bear stood up only 30 feet away. The bear looked towards him, The airman emptied both his gun and his bowels at the same time...
The actual facts as written in The Washington Times

Is that a black bear?! He has curved claws but it looks like he has a hump on his back.

It's a Alaskan Brown Bear. This one was very big but not the Alaskan Brown Bear record.
I think that hump is because of how they had him and propping his head up on rocks.
In the third pic , look how big those claws are! :eek:

Oh my God,look at the size of that thing!He was HUGE!

Oh yeah...typical...guy with gun goes into the woods, meets bear, craps his pants because he doesn't understand what the bear is "saying" and shoots it dead. Whoopee. How manly.

Or the other way around giving credence to the old adage, "Does a bear sh...." well, you know.

WW, if I remember correctly they were out hunting deer and saw the bear trying to catch salmon about 30 yards away. They kept an eye out for it, but lost site of it. The bear then reappeared about 30 FEET away and trotting towards them. He says he didn't know if the bear saw them, but could not take a chance, since he didn't even know if he could get a shot off before the bear got to him. So he aimed at the bears eye, but the shot went into his snout then into his brain, the bear went down but raised his head so he fired 6 more rounds into him. I don't think anyone here would have done any differently. Being in the Service it took a lot for him to admit he $hit his pants.

Here's the story of it including it's measurements.

http://www.avnut.com/Bear_Story.html

Hey not to bad a memory about what really happened.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by RobertRogers

Bears and berries go hand in hand. But almost always there is nothing to fear as long as you keep your head about you - the bears have been in the area all along only you may have not noticed them before.

In northern climates bears rely upon a rich berry harvest to help get fat for the winter. In fact, you can thank the bears for helping to spread berry seeds and increase the numbers of berry plants you have available for harvest.

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We have lot of black bears. There was a yearling cub in the yard the other night. I don't get particularly concerned about them - long as they stay out of my apple trees. It was mostly seeing one three inches away when I wasn't expecting it that made me take notice.

I do generally avoid sows with cubs. Just a wise precaution.

Photo of the cub in our yard:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v5...arborsBear.jpg

Plus a nice eagle photo - taken by a friend through a spotting scope.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v5...MoreEagles.jpg

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Gray Wolf

WW, if I remember correctly they were out hunting deer and saw the bear trying to catch salmon about 30 yards away. They kept an eye out for it, but lost site of it. The bear then reappeared about 30 FEET away and trotting towards them. He says he didn't know if the bear saw them, but could not take a chance, since he didn't even know if he could get a shot off before the bear got to him. So he aimed at the bears eye, but the shot went into his snout then into his brain, the bear went down but raised his head so he fired 6 more rounds into him. I don't think anyone here would have done any differently. Being in the Service it took a lot for him to admit he $hit his pants.

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Always hard to pass a judgement on things one didn't witness...I read through the newspaper story; so apparently that dude thought a bear rug might be nice in the livingroom when he saw the bear fishing.

The thing is just with surprise bear encounters, as this ended up being in the end, people let themselves be ruled by fear. If you have bearspray instead of a gun, in the vast majority of cases both you and the bear get to tell the tale because it is extremely rare that a bear wants to kill and eat you. They want to be left alone and prefer their personal space without people, just as people don't want bears getting too close into their personal space. Bears will either turn and run if a person gets to close to them, stand their ground, slowly approach to bully that person aout of the way, or bluff charge.
People who carry a gun will most likely shoot a bear who because of their utter ignorance of bear behaviour and language scares them, and this guy was lucky that he managed to kill the bear. A lot of times what happens is that the bear is wounded, and even if severely wounded, THAT is when they will get seriously ticked off and THEN they mean business and want to do you harm because their survival is at stake.

So yes, that bear was only 30 feet away and approaching, sounds to me (without knowing what sort of body and vocal language he was displaying) that he either wanted to check the guys out or was still fairly politely asking them to get out of his way.

But since the guy had already figured before that such a big bear would best be shot dead and give great bragging rights, I suppose he wouldn't have been interested in letting it get on with its life anyway.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by wildWoman

If you have bearspray instead of a gun, in the vast majority of cases both you and the bear get to tell the tale because it is extremely rare that a bear wants to kill and eat you.

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LINK. Guns vs. bears, gun user gets hurt ~50% of the time. Bear Spray vs. bears, sprayer gets away unharmed a large majority of the time. I agree with wildWoman, better both parties are able to walk away and get on with their business.

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