Bear taking a dump in my mock scrape

[Iron_llama]

Does anyone use or have killed a deer with a mossin rifle?

No deer, but a number of jackrabbits. Buddy of mine shot a black bear with one.

 

[Albisu]

Three possibilities:
- auditioning for the new Charmine commercial?
- Yogi, " hey Boo-Boo!! Watch this..."
- Yogi, "Cindy, we can have that picnic basket in a moment. "

 

[luv2bowhunt]

I heard any interesting piece of trivia on one of the MeatEater trivia shows recently. The number 1 cause of death by predator for fawns was coyotes at 76%. Second was black bears at something like 14%.

I’m not pointing that out to disagree with you. It just surprised me how many more fawns coyotes kill.

Here are the results from the Fawn Mortality Study the PA Game Comm. did several years back on PA public land. The difference in the bear % below is that the Quehanna Wild Area has alot more bears in it than the Penns Valley region does.

Where there were a bunch of bears, they killed a bunch of fawns. They were the dominant predator in the QWA. I couldn't make the columns line up, but you guys are smart, you'll figure it out.

----- Penns Valley ---- Quehanna Wild Area
Predator species %

Coyote --- 62.5 --------- 31.7
Bear --- 12.5 ------ --- --- 36.6
Bobcat --- .0 -- ----------- 7.3
Unidentified --- 25.0 -- ------ 24.4

 

[GCTerpfan]

Here are the results from the Fawn Mortality Study the PA Game Comm. did several years back on PA public land. The difference in the bear % below is that the Quehanna Wild Area has alot more bears in it than the Penns Valley region does.

Where there were a bunch of bears, they killed a bunch of fawns. They were the dominant predator in the QWA. I couldn't make the columns line up, but you guys are smart, you'll figure it out.

----- Penns Valley ---- Quehanna Wild Area
Predator species %

Coyote --- 62.5 --------- 31.7
Bear --- 12.5 ------ --- --- 36.6
Bobcat --- .0 -- ----------- 7.3
Unidentified --- 25.0 -- ------ 24.4

That definitely paints a different picture. I can see how the data would be skewed Nationally. Where I am at in Western MD I typically see and/or get pics of about the same number of bears as coyotes.

 

[Robert loper]

Well i guess i cant ask that question anymore.

 

[Jammintree]

I’ve also observed bears checking community scrapes and I certainly wonder what their intentions are. My understanding is that bears sense of smell is nearly as good as a deer. So presumably bear smell them from quite a long distance down wind. Who knows what kind of relationships they all have with eachother. Maybe it’s a territorial thing? - move your damn scrape out of my area!

 

[Jammintree]

Here are the results from the Fawn Mortality Study the PA Game Comm. did several years back on PA public land. The difference in the bear % below is that the Quehanna Wild Area has alot more bears in it than the Penns Valley region does.

Where there were a bunch of bears, they killed a bunch of fawns. They were the dominant predator in the QWA. I couldn't make the columns line up, but you guys are smart, you'll figure it out.

----- Penns Valley ---- Quehanna Wild Area
Predator species %

Coyote --- 62.5 --------- 31.7
Bear --- 12.5 ------ --- --- 36.6
Bobcat --- .0 -- ----------- 7.3
Unidentified --- 25.0 -- ------ 24.4

thanks for sharing the data! I’ve often wondered about this, and suspected bear to eat a lot of fawns. However, would a mature buck still maintain a fear of bears?

 

[woodsdog2]

I wish the bears would just go away Its cool seeing them and everything but I do think they have some kind of an impact. I had some buck pics on my cell cams and then a yearling came through and although doe movement seems the same.....the larger bucks haven't been back on my cell cams. I haven't checked my standard cams yet. I'll probably try to change out cards and do battery checks this weekend if I can.

 

[raisins]

he was mocking your scrape....

 

[woodsdog2]

he was mocking your scrape....

Now that's creative right there!!!

 

[Jammintree]

I wish the bears would just go away Its cool seeing them and everything but I do think they have some kind of an impact. I had some buck pics on my cell cams and then a yearling came through and although doe movement seems the same.....the larger bucks haven't been back on my cell cams. I haven't checked my standard cams yet. I'll probably try to change out cards and do battery checks this weekend if I can.

i wonder who’s impact on deer is greater, the bear or the humans.

 

[woodsdog2]

i wonder who’s impact on deer is greater, the bear or the humans.

Good points. I have purposely not been going in there at all to keep human intrusion down and I doubt bears have as much of an impact as humans but hey, I’ve gotta blame something