We've been having strange things going, the other morning something was making a racket outside around 5AM but I was to sleepy to drag myself up and look.

Later found a paw toenails print on the screen door, very delicate, but enough that must have been razor sharp claws just cut into the screen and tore it maybe 1/4 inch -each claw.

For the last couple months someone or something was tearing down the fancy fly catcher jars I'd tied up in trees. As recent as last night the remaining one was pulled down -I know because I checked it yesterday and planned on refilling it with water.

Mouse and rat traps are usually set off inexplicably.

Last night about midnight something was hanging around the gate so we got dressed and went thru the woods to explore and look for prints. We did some additional exploring and then got lost for abt 1/2 an hour going in circles using the moon to help us navigate, and found bear poop.



Don't use the moon to navigate when its almost centered high in the sky.  

Take a spare flashlight battery... Wear long pants when you plan to get lost in the brush.  Ow!


My SO's rocks are mysteriously being rolled over.

Last year something pushed a 200 or 300 hundred pound wood stove we have sitting outside, over a bank.

Something chewed the 2" pink foam summer insulation we have on the glass of the solar water box to keep it from getting too warm inside. And gently scratched the insulation, I'm sure it was trying to decide if it should crawl on top to get on the roof behind it. That would be disastrous.

There's more havoc, much moar...


So I figgered it would be some cute little animule with big sharp claws ---and it WAS!





Sneaking around looking for more fly traps we put near the tank...






Heading to the solar water tank to chew it again... We had left a couple hours earlier  -I think he waits until we leave to prowl around during the day.

Except last fall when he [ ? ] had two run ins with my SO and chased her into the barn.  






You can't see the solar box except for the rain drip in the very front, but our friend is sniffing at the insulation.

Note the rat trap on the ground --in the next photo in the sequence Mr. Bear's left paw kicks it over -and doesn't set it off! Lucky bear...  





And look at that LONG tail....


It's time to deploy the RTDL!!!!!!!  

Very cool. Lets see pics when he looks like this....................

that Fkr needs a dirt nap

Eat it before it eats you.

This is a bear that has lost the fear of man. That makes it dangerous. I would call the local game warden to find out how to deal with it.

I don't think this bear has ever seen man!

"Chased your SO into the barn"????

He's at least seen WOman.   Get a permit, kill, and eat.  If you can't get a permit, then....

Shovel hole in advance (to lessen exposure time to being seen in proximity to corpse)
Suppress rifle
See bear
Shoot bear
Shove bear in hole
Shovel hole full of dirt
Shut up about it, and don't post about or otherwise acknowledge your new and very cool accomplishment on Arfcom.

Three S's wasn't enough.  In honor of Trillions of dollars printed and inflation, I added some.


I know you think the bear is cute and all naturey, but it isn't actually cute, and the naturey thing to do (meaning the actual right thing) is to kill the mother fucker before he hurts someone (your SO or you).

Exterminate with extreme prejudice.

Seeing as the bear is invincible vs rat traps you need to step up your game.

I suggest about 5lbs of tannerite covered in chocolate sauce, and sitting maybe on your roof with a rifle and a red light

Be sure to film it for us too!

Looks kinda scrawny.

ditto that...maybe its a n older one(but his muzzle doesnt look like most "old" animals)...or he's sick.



fatten that fucker up ....get a meat grinder and make some burgers



 

If "RTDL" means Real Time Data Link, and you intend to use it to positively ID your quarry before triggering the command detonated mine, then yes, I agree, it's time for the RTDL....

Yes he does.  Hungry bear is more motivated to search for food.  Seems like a bad situation.  I feel kind of bad for the bear but it's not like they're endangered.  Unless you can get them to trap and move it the only option is to make bear burgers.

That isn't what it means.

It's just a young'un!

With a long tail.

It's a beautiful specimen.

Don't think I've ever seen a bear that wasn't hungry...

No bear rug for it....

City boys...

Bear spotted...







Hot pursuit....

I am bear-killin' mofo-extremo, and I highly recommend the adequate killing of said bear.

Use nothing less than 45-70, if for nothing more than overkill, and we all know that there is no kill like overkill. Fuck it, just use an M82A1 and send the rest of the bruin bastids a message.

If you want overkill, nothing says "fuck you bear" like a Mk 19.

Bear Trap time.

He looks warm and fuzzy.   Go give him a hug!

 

Ain't gonna be no rug.

That pup has survived tough odds making it in its life to where's it's at. Pretty amazing and I'm not taking it.  

Too bad we humans don't have close to as difficult a task trying to beat Darwin and natural selection challenges and instead breed a high % of idjuts.  

At least in recent times.

He's a beautiful bear with a long tail, and maybe he thinks he's staking out his territory. Amongst the other bears around that you can hear calling in the days and evening.  


Soooo, If necessary, I'll bend that puppy over my knee and 'splain to it who's the Type A  #1 dominant male in the area, and send him crying to the woods hollerin for his mama.

l


Preach on ....

Ok, so those guys with the tree rat problems figured out they could get the rats into a colander, hooked up to some surgical tubing, and make them into a squirrel slingshot.



Now, I'm just thinking out loud here, but snag one of those cubic yard o'crap nylon flex carriers for bulk gravel from Home Despot, build a couple of trebuchets, and bait it with a five gallon bucket of peanut butter......



Yeah, I want some credit when you post the vid.

Hmmmm....

Isn't being born in California enough?



Besides, these are more fun and interesting -alive.

Doh! OUCH.







 

Haha!

This little bear is just getting to a size that a grown mtn lion won't consider him as food for a few days...

I'm glad you are trying not to kill it from the word go.  I don't mind takes when they present a problem, but this guy isn't really people-aware.......just curious like most bears are.

I like bears, personally.  Been around enough of them to know that they are dangerous, but not enough to warrant kill-on-sight ROE..........

Thanks, you're a good thoughtful person.

I, like you, don't see the solution to many problems, indiscriminately coming from the barrel of a gun...

-tho I have solved more than a few, that way...

I don't advocate "indiscriminately" killing bears either.  

I do discriminate at this:  "Except last fall when he [ ? ] had two run ins with my SO and chased her into the barn. "

Unless I'm misunderstanding you, this bear:

1.)  is well aware of your presence, yet remains undeterred

2.)  Identifies your location as a worthwhile food source

3.)  Returns repeatedly

It may unfold that he'll just remain fuzzy and warm the rest of his and your natural lives, or it may also be possible that his continued raids there (coupled with his apparent lack of proper fear), will lead to a highly unfortunate and completely avoidable tragedy.

Hence why I personally would NOT allow the current situation to continue were it my own property.  I like bears too, but raiding bears that lack sufficient fear to stay away from what is clearly human turf warrant removal

He has likely already profited in some way during these forays, or he wouldn't be so set on continuing to "visit".  His behavior has already been learned, and likely positively reinforced.  Relocating him will simply visit this problem on someone else, or back to you if he returns.  

I like bears, but I like my family better.  If I visit his turf, I leave him alone.  If he visited my turf and refused to leave--- Dead bears don't maul.  While I'd miss his natural beauty, I'd prefer losing it to having my wife's face sewed back on...

I think you're overreacting...

Time [and technical means] will tell.

 

give him A  big jar p-butter with ground up crackers and sit back and enjoy the show
 

I'd hate to see it get killed, but if he really did chase your wife, you got problems.

I'd contact your local wildlife office, see what they can do/recommend.

Couldn't you just bear spray his ass? And wasn't there another post about using rubber buckshot?

It didn't "chase" her in the sense of 'pursuing' her, 2 times she went out and both times rushed back in.

One of those times the OHD was open and it was coming in when she was going out. The bear wasn't in a hurry to leave as much as she was, as she was getting ready to spray it if necessary with some sort of cleaner she had in her hand. It stopped and seemed to think what its options were re eating her or something, before it wandered off, that's my interpretation from what she told me.

The other time I was in the barn and she was yelling to get the gun, etc.    

Turns out both times that was an older bigger bear, nice looking bear. Haven't seen it since. I expect to have more run ins. It goes with the territory. Animals are an omnipresent threat and there's no way to eliminate it, just have to be wary and ready.

The one in the pix here is pretty small and likely this is the first 1/2 year or so on its own learning to survive -and doing a great job from the looks of him.     They're all over [well not high density but enough around]  and may move to a different part of the area. Though when hiking, it's common to see very fresh tracks where a bear, [or deer, lion, etc] has hightailed it down a hillside to get away.

All reports are they are quite afraid and leave, usually, but not always -fast. The older ones seem to be less fearful, but fearful nonetheless.

Now lions are a different matter.

A couple years ago there was a mamma lion in her hole in the side of a little hill watching us. We watched awhile and she got bored and went out the back way and walked up a hill not far below where we're based.

Then later we came back and she was back in her den watching and we walked on by after a minute or two watching.

Other lions have 'growled' from a distance and I've watched one on top of a cliff a hundred yards away take up a position in the shadows and watch.

One night I forgot something and had to walk in the dark abt 1/2 a mile and back and didn't have my gun. That's wasn't too comfortable, not that a gun would be much use if I got jumped w/out warning. Sometimes I'll see tracks where we've been before.

There's a small and interesting ravine close to that encounter where we like to explore [there's a small spring in it] so there's always the concern something will jump over the edge.

Last fall we saw 3 identical lions all from the same mamma I'm sure, working as a pack and focused on a rabbit hole or something. When they saw us it was like comedy central, they had no idea what to do or where to go and for a couple seconds they were running into each other before they took off in different directions. It's unusual for them to work together and these appeared full size but young. Probably not too long before they all went their separate ways in their lives.

It isn't practical to carry spray all the time and it's rare to confront a bear, just those two times I've mentioned in years. That one likely was hanging around for a few weeks and moved on, there's essentially unlimited territory for them to move in.

The sign of lions and bears and other large and small wildlife is everywhere, varying at different times of the year. The cam sequence with these bear pix have a rabbit looking at the cam in a frame or two.

In another month or two, there will be bears calling in the evenings night after night. Including not too far away.

Sound carries a long ways at night and I've heard from time to time what's likely the brief scream of an animal caught by a lion.


There's a few small trees here and there that we've found, that the lions scratch down to a bare post.  We're extry careful when we see those, they're marking their territory.

Of course you can find bones and scat all over the place and the deer pretty much keep the predators fed. Also good sized holes in opportune places with a vent over the den abt 5 or so inches in diameter. Good number of those.

This little bear is prolly using our trails as a shortcut to improve his survival efficiency and get where it's going, and likes to tear a few things up out of curiosity when passing thru. We'll check the cams again in a day or so.

Something that I've noticed is the tameness of the small game. They seem not to understand the danger man presents to them.

I've had rabbits hop out within say 15 feet and watch as I dug a hole or something.

Squirrels do the same thing and will get pretty close. We had one that every day abt the same time when we'd be sitting down, it'd come cruising by and sit and watch for a moment and then go abt its biz.

It usually had it's cheeks all puffed up with food for winter!  

If the bear is really that young, and never made any moves towards you and your SO (didn't chase her), then maybe you should give him a lesson in fear of humans.  It will serve him well the rest of his life, if the lesson sticks...


I probably wouldn't be so bold, but if your're feeling froggy.........

IIRC, there recently was a guy whose child was attacked by a bear, or something like that, and he picked up a branch, hit the bear on the head and killed it.

The bear is back with FRIENDS [prolly his sister and Mama]


There's a rock on top of the solar box in the summer to keep the pink insulation from blowing off. The bears seem to think a rock on top of the box is out of place and have been curious about it -until this little bear got too inquisitive and pulled the rock off and it dropped onto his FOOT!










OW!!!!!  ----Look at the size of that paw!








Then the camera revealed what I didn't expect until then, that I'm running an amusement park  --for bears!







Bears having a pow-wow about how they plan to roll over our propane tank...












The mama sneaked a bite out of the insulation when she walked by... That's exactly where the rat trap hangs and the bear is likely pissed it got snapped on the nose.

Didn't slow them down any and when something adverse happens to them, they seem to go right back and try to find out why. No fear...





Where did their LONG TAILS go????

A check of the cam last night shows the little male bear sneaking over by hisself and humping the left side of the propane tank. A chip off the old block!  

No pix because a lot of lil kids are likely seeing these.

Looks like there's going to be many more bears, see if any of the kids want to adopt a couple when the little bear and/or his sister have cubs in a couple years.

In fact, if they can catch them, they can have them right now!

They pulled the gutter drains off and broke the gutter in the past week, bit off a bunch of the $1 solar yard lights on their fav path, turned over more rocks, bit a piece out of my SO's flipflop, They've left the screen alone but I fear what's going to happen tonight.

There's no trace of a 50 foot hose.  

The young ones found a piece of 2" pink rigid insulation in the earlier photos and you can see it laying down in the far left corner of one of them, where's he's going to town chewing it up.

In another series of pix, the biggest one is standing up at the tree to the left of the tank and shaking the crap out of the tree trying to get the fly traps loose. I had them tied with #12 wire and hooked around but somehow they get them down and smash them.


Something to consider to stock in preps is a good battery operated electric fence, that can be packed in a small size gym bag.

Plastic bottles and paracord can be used for insulators.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HEKpXSVhMI


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gMC11x1luA




Here's a simple circuit to make a fence charger for a couple dollars. The IGFET can probably be salvaged from an inverter, CRT displat or old TV.

[Be sure to save a few of those while they're still available for 'special' parts.]


Fence Charger

These dorks saying "Choot 'em!" are short sited fools.


It's a bear.  It's your BOL, right?  

Train that mofo up, make it your guard bear.  No one breaking in when you're gone. Win!

Rubber bullet their ass if you dont want to kill them. OP what state are you in?

Or bearittos

You bastards now I'm hungry

In all honesty I like bears we have them in the u.p. and I don't think I'd shoot it unless it came after the wife or kids or whatever like it was attacking but of I saw that bastard tip over my Woodstove that ways 300 pounds I'd prolly plug him

As has already been proffered, S3

As has already been suggested, S3. Or, get some Fiochi rubber buckshot and blister their rumps.

Thanks for all the insightful thoughts!


I wouldn't begin to think about peppering this adorable little bear's behind!

They haven't been causing much of an issue the past week. You can tell the mama bear has good instincts raising her cubs by exposing them to all sorts of things that aren't only found in nature.

Smart mama bear!

ADORABLE BEAR