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Thread: Bear Adventures....

  1. #11
    edieo Guest
    I have to agree that they have a very nasty smell at least the two I came across did ,but they ran from me ,,,Guess they heard I talk alot .. Both times I finished my hike .The first time my heart was racing the second time it wasn't quiet as bad ..

  2. #12
    dallaswynn Guest

    Smells

    Black bears smell a lot like old wet moldy dog laundry, for lack of a better description. Right, my first time was life changing, but now it is just majestic.

  3. #13
    Join Date
    Oct 2005
    Location
    Russellville
    Posts
    1,117
    While I was in Alaska, I also learned how you can tell grizzly bear scat from other animal scat. Grizzly bear scat is the one with the little silver bells in it!
    "Wildness is a necessity." -- John Muir

    "I would rather wake up in the middle of nowhere than in any city on earth." -- Steve McQueen


  4. #14
    Join Date
    Mar 2006
    Location
    Hot Springs AR
    Posts
    2

    Geocaching Adventures

    About 12 years ago we were in the Smoky Mtn NP and touring the valley loop. The traffic backed up and everyone jumped out to go see the bear. I stayed in the car because we were caught between parking locations. After a LONG while several people were headed back to their cars and I asked if they had seen a bear. "Yes we did and there was a crazy boy getting too close and the bear was charging him!" Mmmm... well at least I don't have to worry because my oldest son Chuck had gone to another location with friend. Rob, my youngest, is not so wild and we never have to worry about him!

    Soon there after, "George", Rob and the others came back. "George" was quite upset. "Rob was uncontrollable, and he repeatedly got too close to the bear!" she informed me. I asked Rob what was he doing and he explained, "Daddy, the bear was used to people being around and was not afraid of us. I got close to see what he was eating as he grazed along. He was watching me the whole time and whenever I got too close he would face me, grunt, and take 2 steps toward me to say step back. He wasn't upset or anything. And I would step back. It wasn't any big deal." I informed Rob that he must obey his stepmother as he would me or his mother. And I thought to myself, "OMG, he is turning into Chuck."

    I am happy to report at this time that not only did Rob not turn into Chuck, but that Chuck has survived and is now a little closer to Rob's normal behavior. The are now in their 30's.

    My parents never told me it would be like this raising kids.

  5. #15
    mountainborn Guest
    Betty and I hosted a campground in Colorado this Summer. We had many Black Bear encounters. This particular old sow got to where she recognised me and the sound of our Jeep coming and knew that I would shoot her with a bean flip, to run her out of the campers campsites. In the first few seconds of this video she just very casually rips the top off of a 54 quart marine ice chest.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBPZvw7ks5Q
    Arkansas Game and Fish will relocate a problem bear, but it usually doesn't work. They will always come back for more easy food. That is the reason for the saying "A Fed Bear is a Dead Bear". They become more and more jaded to Human presence until they are a threat to Humans and must be destroyed.

  6. #16
    Join Date
    Apr 2007
    Location
    Searcy, Ark
    Posts
    164
    Here is a 2007 news story about a Black Bear killed in Arkansas by a 5 year old hunter:

    12 Dec 2007
    Davy Crockett’s 10th Great Grandson Kills Bear at Age 5
    Americana, Arkansas, Big Game Hunting, Black Bear, David Crockett, The Right Stuff

    Renowned hunter, frontiersman, Indian fighter, and Congressman David Crockett of Tennessee, who died fighting for the Liberty of Texas at the Alamo in 1836, was reputed to have begun his hunting exploits by killing a bear at the age of 3.

    Davy Crockett’s hunting prowess as a toddler is usually thought to have been only a legend, but as ABC7 News reports:



    Dewitt, Ark. A 5-year-old Arkansas County boy killed a black bear Sunday weighing more than 400 pounds.

    Tre Merritt, a descendant of Davy Crockett, was hunting with his grandfather Mike Merritt when a black bear happened upon their stand.

    “His 10th great-grandfather was Davy Crockett,” Mike Merritt said. “And Davy supposedly killed him a bear when he was three. And Tre is five and really killed a bear. I really doubt if Davy killed one when he was three.”

    Mike Merritt was in the stand at the time but said Tre did it all by himself.

    “He came in about 40 to 50 yards,” Mike Merritt said of the black bear, “and when he got in the open, I whistled at him and he stopped and I said, ‘Shoot Tre.’”

    Tre confirmed his grandfather’s account.

    “I was up in the stand and I seen the bear,” Tre Merritt said. “It came from the thicket and it was beside the road and I shot it.”

    At first, Mike Merritt didn’t think Tre had hit the bear with his youth rifle.

    “I said, ‘Tre, you missed the bear,’ ” Mike Merritt said. “He said, ‘Paw-paw I squeezed the trigger and I didn’t close my eyes. I killed him.”’

    The bear turned out to be 445 pounds; 12 times the weight of Tre. Mike Merritt said tears rolled down his cheeks when he found out his grandson killed the enormous bear.

    Tre Merritt’s father said he began teaching his son to shoot when he was just 2 .5 years old, and said Tre killed three deer last year.

    The family plans to get a life-sized mount of the bear, but where they will put it has yet to be determined.

    DeWitt is in rural eastern Arkansas, close to the Mississippi River bottoms and near Stuttgart, the Duck Hunting Capitol of the World.




    Let’s hope the kid runs for Congress someday.

  7. #17
    dallaswynn Guest

    A fed bear.....

    If you are easily offended, please do not continue to read my rant.







    I could offend a great many people with my comments and opinions, so I will keep them to myself......for the most part; I believe the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission should issue HEFTY fines for ANYONE caught feeding wildlife! Not only is it dangerous for the animal, but it is also dangerous for the camper. If the AG&FC would issue a $1,000 fine, and post a warning at the entrance to campgrounds, people might quit this dangerous and appalling behavior. I view people that feed wildlife the same as I view people that throw their beer cans on the trail, as a nuisance. I am a bit of a mountain man I guess, although educated, and the reason for this is because of my utter disdain for the ignorance the human race exhibits toward our natural world. Being the dominant species, dominant in intellect, we have a responsibility to coexist with our natural world! I have a passion about preservation, and it angers me when I see people treat this world as a circus exhibit, only here for their amusement. There are two things that "man" has lost somewhere in translation: love of neighbor and respect of nature. Timothy Treadwell is a prime example of this. I'm sorry about ranting, I think it is ignorant in itself sometimes, but when I hear the term "A fed bear is a dead bear", I remember stories I have heard that could have been avoided. About the 5 year old hunting the bear.....I cried when he shot it also, probably not for the same reason as his grandfather. You kill it, you eat it!! Enough said, hope I didn't make any enemies.

  8. #18
    dallaswynn Guest

    Great stories!!

    Mountainborn, that is some awesome footage. That bear is obviously habituated as you can see it is picky with its choices. Thank you for running the bear off as well! With people like you, maybe we can save a few.

  9. #19
    mountainborn Guest




  10. #20
    edieo Guest
    Awesome photos....

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