July 7, 2025 • 43 mins
Unlocking the secrets of successful bear hunting requires more than just good gear and patience – it demands a deep understanding of black bear behavior, particularly their feeding patterns. In this illuminating conversation with bear hunting expert Heather Aldrich, we dive into the core principles that transform occasional luck into consistent success.
The foundation of Heather's approach centers on a simple yet profound truth: "No food, no bear." Bears are opportunistic omnivores whose movements through the landscape are dictated almost entirely by seasonally available food sources. Unlike many hunters who focus primarily on finding bear sign, Heather advocates becoming something of a botanist – learning to identify the plants bears feed on throughout their growth cycles. This knowledge allows hunters to predict where bears will be with remarkable accuracy.
Perhaps most surprising is Heather's revelation about bear behavior near roads and human activity. Contrary to what many believe, bears have learned to pattern humans rather than simply avoiding them. Some of her most productive hunting spots have been within 100 yards of gravel roads – areas many hunters bypass assuming bears stay deep in the backcountry. This insight is especially valuable for hunters with limited time who might unnecessarily hike miles when bears could be much closer.
Spring and fall hunting require dramatically different approaches. Spring bears emerge from hibernation gradually, taking up to two weeks to become fully active. They travel constantly while feeding, rarely staying in one spot for long. Fall bears, by contrast, commit to rich food sources like huckleberry patches for extended periods. Understanding these seasonal differences is crucial for selecting appropriate hunting locations and strategies.
Whether you're a seasoned hunter looking to improve your bear hunting success or someone considering your first bear hunt, this episode provides actionable insights that will transform your approach. By learning to see the landscape through a bear's perspective – driven by hunger, opportunity, and adaptation – you'll develop the skills to consistently locate these fascinating predators in their natural habitat.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome back to the Blacktail Coach Podcast.
I'm Aaron.
This week, part two of bearhunting with Heather Aldrich.
Okay, so now let's get into thehunt.
Sure, so we've talked, and Ithink it's really important
always to go over a lot of theinformation we went over
previously.
It just is, you know, we're notin the day where you just go
(00:24):
out hunting, you don't have tothink about it.
There are more, many more lawsand rules and everything to
follow.
So so now we want to besuccessful when we if our time
is going to be limited, yeah, wewant to be successful in those,
in those limits.
And you know, while we'repursuing our trophies and one of
the things we always talk aboutis, there's records for bear or
(00:49):
for any animal.
But then there's trophies.
And what is your trophy?
Because that ends up being aparticular thing a bear you've
been chasing for a particularamount of time.
For me it was last year.
I actually got my first buck,nice, and I was able to hunt him
with a pistol.
Oh, wow, both trophies.
You know, the deer was notrecord book at all.
(01:10):
But now we want to get into howdo we become successful bear
hunters?
So let's start out Well.
Let's talk about scouting forbear.
Okay, so for you is scouting ayear-round process.
What's the year look like?
Let's start off talking aboutwhat the year looks like.
Okay, for e-scouting, possibly,or maybe you're traveling out.
(01:33):
If it's an out-of-state hunt,sure, how does the year look?
Speaker 3 (01:37):
So I live, breathe and eat bear hunting.
So there's a lot of things thatgo into my scouting.
So basically it's year-roundfor me as best I can.
You know, obviously there'sgoing to be a point where
they're in the den and you can'tsee them, right.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
That doesn't mean that I stop reading or paying
attention to units, so I kind ofcome about it from am I going
to be doing a spring hunt or afall hunt?
That's my first, my firstdividing point for the scouting
and what I will do.
There's some things that aresimilar, but there's going to be
an obvious break between thespring and the fall and where
(02:13):
I'm going to look in the habitatfor them.
So that was my first questionthere.
The next one is is this anout-of-state hunt or is it an
in-state hunt?
Because that might limit eithermy time or my ability to be
there because of work anddriving and all the things right
.
Another one's going to be isyour tag good for one unit or is
(02:34):
it good for the entire state?
Okay, and that kind of putsanother box on us.
So what I'm looking at, Idescribe it as a chessboard,
right, and it's the way we grewup playing chess and to me,
getting that specific bear ischeckmate.
I've done all the things rightand I've gotten to the end point
, which was the goal of fillingmy tag.
And it might not be filling mytag.
(02:55):
Go back to your trophy.
It might not be on the biggestbear in the mountain, it might
be a bear that I picked outbecause I absolutely love their
color of hide.
They're just so beautiful thatthat's the bear I chose.
So those are someconsiderations.
So let's start withgeneralities.
(03:17):
I'm going to start scouting forbear.
Where am I going to begin?
A lot of people, when theyfirst start hunting bear,
they're going to hunt in a unit.
They've been hunting elk anddeer in.
Nothing wrong with that.
It's a great place to start.
Maybe they've seen a bear therebefore and now they're like I
want to be a bear hunter, I'mgoing to start picking these up,
and so they already knowsomething about the unit and
(03:37):
they have some starting points.
That's good, and from there youknow, you can let me back up a
step.
So when I think about thosepeople, I think about myself and
how I can get stuck in ruts andback to the being adaptable
thing.
It's very important that whenwe look at a unit for a new
species that maybe we've huntedfor 20, 25 years, that we open
(04:00):
our eyes and look at itdifferently.
So we need to be careful to notalways go back the same
hillside, the same ridge, thesame bottom, the same meadow,
the same whatever.
Maybe that worked for elkbecause that's what you were
hunting but, it might notnecessarily work for bears in
that unit.
So looking at it with fresh eyes.
If you're going to a brand newunit, that's really good a lot
(04:22):
of times, I think, for people,because they do come into it
automatically with a fresh setof ice and it's easier for them
to kind of break it apart.
So that's the first bit.
So let's say spring hunt.
I want to start learning a unitI'm going to go back through.
I'm going to look at all theharvest reports and maybe I
(04:42):
heard about this unit to thegrapevine A lot of times I do.
I don't know how others, butfor me, you know, I'll hear
there was a great bear and theytook a large one, or they took a
color phase, and you know somespecific piece of data that
piqued my interest and I wentokay that's my.
That's going to be a unit I'mgoing to look at.
So I'm going to go back there,I'm going to look at all the
harvest reports and I'm going totry to figure out what that's
(05:04):
looking like and take them witha grain of salt for any kind of
a spring information Because,again, you might have a really
low year but it was based onaccess they couldn't get in,
where some people might see thatas a problem.
I kind of laugh a little bit andthis is my husband means it,
I'm sure, in a good way.
This is where he calls me thecrazy bear hunter.
But other people see a berm andthey're like, oh man, I'm not
(05:26):
going past that thing.
I look at it and go okay, howfar is it to the place I want to
be?
How many miles do I have towalk?
So we're parking the truck andwe're going and he's just
groaning, you know, but that's away to limit, you know, other
competition that are not willingto do that.
And what's funny is the guysthat I talk to when we say
something like that they wouldnot do that for a bear but if it
(05:47):
was an elk dude.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
Absolutely.
Speaker 3 (05:50):
Right, they're going for it.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
So let me ask you about this.
So we talk about deer, and thisis you know for scouting, that
we're not looking for deer,we're looking for habitat,
because if you find habitat, thedeer will be there and there's
a lot of guys.
To get to their spot will gomiles and miles past a gate or
(06:13):
something like that, and we'relike, if the habitat is right
next to the gate, hunt rightnext to the gate.
Yes, and we've proven time andtime again that a lot of times
you don't have to go more than ahalf mile in Sure, is there
something similar?
So and I'm asking this becauseall of my sets are within a half
(06:34):
mile, some are even closer tothe gate, just a couple of
hundred yards to go in, and Ihave bear on all of my sets that
have popped up Is that?
I mean, is it one of thosewhere it's kind of better to go
miles and miles in if you, or isit just you go where you need
to go?
Speaker 3 (06:50):
So there are things that I that I like to tell
people about bears.
The first is, and I will get toyour question, here and I
probably jumped ahead of like ifI just waited, you'd answer
that at some point.
So there are generalities ofwhat bears will do, and then
there's individuals within thatthat will step outside the norm
(07:12):
and do something that's justcompletely odd and unusual and
that's pretty predictable intheir unpredictability.
Okay, they're very adaptableanimals and it's something that
I admire about them is theirability to change with weather
or topography changes.
You know, fires, flooding, etc.
They're going to make it,they're going to find a way to
(07:33):
survive.
Having said that, they can becloser to people than people
realize.
So, yes, there's that mentality,I think, especially because of
elk hunting, where you know theyget behind a gate and oh, I got
to go five miles to get awayfrom all the people, and that
bear might not be that far inRight, he just he has no need to
be and because of topographyand whatnot.
(07:55):
And I know there was studiesdone on how roads affect elk and
elk movement.
What's interesting is that isnot really true of our black
bear.
So I've got cameras set up thatare literally probably 20 yards
off of a gravel road, becausethe bears have learned how to
basically pattern people is whatI call it.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (08:16):
And so they will cross in between these streams
of people at the oddest times,and that's one of their travel
routes, which is why my camera'sthere, so they are not afraid
of roads and they're not afraidto be close to roads.
In fact, one of my favoritehunting spots in the whole world
we've taken three bears out ofit within a hundred yards of one
stump is literally, oh mygoodness, it's probably a
(08:39):
hundred yards off of a gravelroad and they just come right
through it.
So I'm not too concerned abouthow far I may need to travel, if
that makes sense.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
Yeah, okay, so is there a difference between
spring and summer?
As far as Actually?
Let's go back and let me askabout e-scouting.
Do you start with e-scouting,or is that even something that
factors in?
Speaker 3 (09:04):
It does factor in.
Whether I start with it or notis dependent on the unit and
maybe the information.
Is this a new unit or maybethis is an adjacent unit to
something I've already beenhunting and it piqued my
interest and now I'm going tostart snooping around.
So in this day and age, my, mygosh, we have so many, so many
things available to us formapping.
(09:25):
Really, you can get all kindsof stuff right.
So it's pretty easy to look atthe topography and start, you
know, rolling through it andlooking for areas of interest.
And that's based on.
The areas of interest are basedon things that I've seen over
the years of where thelikelihood is to find a bear.
(09:46):
If there's a good biologist forthe area, then I would love to
talk to them.
And that's kind of a hit andmiss when it comes to our bears.
There's just not as much studyput into them.
So your biologist may have areally good handle of his unit,
he may not, or his region, butsometimes they do.
And so then I'll ask themspecific questions about their
(10:07):
density.
What they expect color wise,you know is it a higher density
of black bears at higher densityof color bear, kind of that
kind of an expectation.
What size bears are they seeingcoming out of that unit?
And they may gave us somespecific areas to go.
Look.
They may say I want you to gooff you know half mile creek off
non-mile road.
Okay, great, so I'm going to gothere.
They may say I want you to gooff you know half mile creek off
non-mile road, okay great, soI'm going to go there and I'm
(10:28):
going to.
That's going to be on one of mylittle markers that.
I'm going to put down to gocheck out.
If there's no bears in there,we need to remember that they
and this is going to go intopart of our scouting it may not
be because the biologist isincorrect.
You just may be in there at thewrong time of year.
So maybe that biologist sawthem and they consistently are
(10:48):
in there, but maybe it's a falltype habitat, so it's more of a
fall area that I would hunt asopposed to a spring habitat.
So again, it's not that theydon't know what they're talking
about, it's just you're in thereat the wrong time of year, so
that's something to factor in.
So e-scouting is very importantto me.
So that's something to factorin.
So e-scouting is very importantto me If I can save boots on
the ground to give me some moretime to look at an area before I
(11:10):
go into something very specific.
I feel like that's just beingsmart, yes, using your time
wisely.
Now, once I pick spots, I'mgoing to go check them out.
I may deploy cameras, I may not, depending on what I find and,
again, if I can get in thereearly enough.
This is really difficult to doin the spring.
Most of the time I'm not goingto be able to because there's
(11:31):
snow on the ground and I'm notgoing to be able to get my
cameras deployed before thebears are out.
Right, I just can't get there.
So I may set them up in thespring and then let them run
through the fall, let them soakthrough the fall areas and try
to get information on that.
So if I'm going to hunt the fall, then yes, absolutely
(11:53):
no-transcript.
I may be moving several ofthose cameras because I am
specifically setting them upwhere I expect them to be in the
spring.
They won't be there in the fall, but it gives you an idea of
what the population is like inthat specific unit, if that
makes sense.
Okay.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
Now this is, and I put it under my for my notes
here, under scouting and justbecause I couldn't think of
where else to put it now I'veseen multiple.
At times I've seen multiplebears on camera at the same time
, sure, and one time it was, youknow, I got my, my snapshot of
some some bear porn.
(12:30):
Is you know, daddy bear, mommybear, we're making some baby
bears.
And well, there was anothertime, and then this was the one
and I thought it was a boar anda sow, but there was a cub there
, fairly young, smaller cub, nottiny, but he was small, yeah,
(12:51):
okay, so I see two full-sizebear and one cub, sure, and so I
thought, okay, well, mommy,daddy and baby are there.
But then I was corrected sayingno, no, you wouldn't see a boar
around a cub because he'dprobably want to eat it.
So what kind of groupings wouldyou?
(13:12):
If you put out cameras, whatkind of groupings might you see
on camera?
Speaker 3 (13:18):
So that's a really interesting concept and one that
I have studied because it'sfascinating to me.
But basically, what youprobably saw was a familial
group.
So let's say a sow has two cubsand let's say they make it to
maturation, ie the bears arefull grown and they're in the
spring and they're going todisperse, and we'll say that one
(13:38):
is a sow cub and one is a boarcub.
So the boar cub is going todisperse a lot further away from
mama.
There've been documentedstudies of over 150 miles away
from his birthplace to set up anew home range.
The sow cub is going to set upa home range right next to mama.
Oh, okay.
So typically, when we see abunch of bears on a camera,
(14:03):
they're going to be a femalegroup, so it'll be a sow, you
know, whoever the original sowwas.
And then several of her get,and then the disbursement
pattern makes it so that theydon't have inbreeding.
That's why they you know theboar goes so far away, so no,
typically you will not see theboar.
Goes so far away, so no,typically you will not see a
(14:26):
boar unless he has ill intentand there's no way she would be
calmly walking by the camerawith a baby in tow.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
I had 200 pictures of this particular grouping
hanging out over the span of afew days.
Speaker 3 (14:34):
Yeah so you're just not going to see that kind of
yeah, so you're just not goingto see that kind of behavior
from them.
They know they are going to.
Going to.
Bears are opportunists.
That's the bottom line.
Yeah.
Food's food.
You know I liken them to ateenage boy.
You know he comes home and he'slooking for food and he just
got back from the all you caneat buffet and now he wants a
snack.
You know.
I mean, it's one of those.
(14:54):
Yeah.
Yeah, pretty much.
So yes, they are opportunistsand so you're not going to see
that kind of a thing typically.
Could it happen?
Sure, because bears would liketo prove me a liar, so I always
put that little proviso in there, but typically, no, okay.
Speaker 1 (15:13):
Yeah, that was just.
It was a purely curious thingbecause I'm like, okay, and it
wasn't where I could tell fromthe pictures me being fairly new
to all this it's like I knowwhat a cub is and I knew because
one of them was turned aroundand got a really good picture
head shape and knowing it was asow and just assuming it was a
sow because a cub being there,sure, but okay, then I have this
(15:33):
other almost full-sized bearhanging around at the same time
and I had all three of them.
So it was one of those likewhat, what am I looking at here?
Speaker 3 (15:42):
so my husband's actually seen that in person.
He was out deer hunting on theeast side of the state and he
came across a sow with two youngcubs I mean, it's late season,
so a little bit older, not notlike brand new.
And then a you know, a two anda half three year old sow with
them, so there's four bears onthe hillside.
(16:05):
So that was her baby from theyear before.
Right, okay.
And so they're just hanging out.
So it's not unheard of.
It does happen.
Speaker 1 (16:13):
Okay.
So when you figure out likeyou've done your e-scouting
you've called your gamebiologist, all things that you
know we definitely support doing.
We do for hunting blacktail aswell, or anything.
Sure, okay, you've decided onan area and boots on the ground.
Speaker 3 (16:32):
Yes, boots on the ground, absolutely.
Again, it's the game of chess.
In order to play the gameeffectively, you need to
understand your opponent.
In this case, it's a bear.
So I think basic informationabout the animal itself helps us
to locate them in thetopography.
So if you know the things theylike and how they function in
life, you're going to be able topick them up Anytime we move to
(16:56):
boots on the ground.
We've made some decisions basedon information, data, data,
data right.
The more data I have, thebetter decisions I can make
about where I'm going to startlooking.
And again, it's a knowledgebase, but also wisdom.
So the knowledge base is I knowthis is a food source in the
spring and I may be coming backhere to hunt in the fall, so I
(17:16):
may put the camera in right toget those pictures and get an
idea of what is there for thebears.
But I know that's not where I'mgoing to be hunting in the fall.
So I'll be moving those thingsand it's not a big deal.
It's just going to move to thelandscape like they do.
So I think one of the mostimportant ABCs of our bears when
we're scouting is to rememberthey are omnivores but they're
(17:37):
seasonal eaters, so they'regoing to move through the
landscape eating what'sseasonally available to them,
and that's going to change right, just as our year changes.
You'll see things in the springthat you don't see in the fall
for that specific food source.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
So I tell people.
Speaker 3 (17:53):
Okay, let's do what I call a food survey.
So when I go into an area andI've chosen that spot, I'm going
to look at that with the ideaof what is available to eat for
that animal at the time.
My tag is open.
It's a very important question.
If you have the answer ofnothing, that is not the place
to be, and it might be reallyhot right then when you're in
(18:15):
there, right?
You've got all the sign, you'vegot bear poop and they're on the
camera and all the things aregoing well.
But then you come back to thatwhen your tag is open and
they're not there.
Well, it's not because thebears disappeared into the
nothingness, right?
They didn't migrate.
They have just moved intoanother part of their habitat on
a different food source.
So, we need to educateourselves on what food sources
are available in the unit thatwe're hunting at the time that
(18:37):
we're going to hunt.
Speaker 1 (18:40):
Okay, before we go further, what is the range of a
black bear typically?
And I know this like an average, because lots of things can
determine what the size of arange, but what is the average?
Speaker 3 (18:53):
So average for a sow is going to be anywhere from two
and a half to 10 square miles,and then our boars, you know,
five to 50 square miles.
I tell people that's based on acouple of factors.
One's going to be yourtopography, the other is going
to be your population densityand then the third is what food
is available.
Those affect how they movethrough and how far they need to
range to make a living.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
Okay.
So when you're going backthinking about scouting, when
you initially get boots on theground, what so?
The only thing that I wouldknow to look for is scat, Sure
and potentially bear peels.
Speaker 3 (19:29):
Sure.
Speaker 1 (19:30):
What else I mean, and I don't even know what that's
telling me, but what are some ofthe signs that you're looking
for when you have boots on theground, and what are those signs
telling you?
Speaker 3 (19:43):
So I've come about it from a little bit different
perspective on how that works.
I'm looking for the foodsources.
Okay.
And once I locate the foodsources, then I can start to
locate the signs.
If you're on something thebear's on let's say
huckleberries you're going tosee bear crap, right, and it's
going to have huckleberries init.
Obviously he's eating here, andthen you might pick up the
(20:04):
tracks.
So then you get an idea of thesize of the bear, his direction
to travel, et cetera.
So I'm going to start with thefood base first.
Once I find the food base, Iknow I'm going to find bears
specific to that unit and youneed to be, again, adaptable.
Like they are, they're going tomove from food source to food
source.
So there's a time in the springwhere you'll be out and gosh,
(20:28):
the bears are everywhere.
They're just they're everywhereand you're just like, oh yeah,
it's hot, right.
And all of a sudden they justdisappear.
You can look in the same spotsthere's no bear, and it's's not
that they again moved, it'sthey've changed food sources and
you're on the wrong food source.
So typically I found there'slike a week where they can smell
that change in the, in the sapthat's running in the trees and,
(20:50):
boy, they're hitting the treeshard, like that's where they're
at, and you'll go in and you'llsee huge patches of timber where
they have been stripping thetrees and it's just interesting
how that happens.
But they have such anincredible sense of smell that
they know when that particularfood item is ripe, be it a berry
or a specific plant type.
(21:12):
A time of year Again, springtime, there's a really good time of
year where we get the biggerbores and it's because the cows
are dropping calves.
So that's a great place to goand set up.
We're not there for the elk,we're there for the bear that's
coming for the calf, and thebears learn that behavior year
after year.
You know, mama bear shows babybear.
(21:32):
Well, this is where you go getyour food.
So, again, it's always foodsource related.
If I get the food source down,I'm going to pick up the bears.
Speaker 1 (21:41):
So let's talk about food sources, and I kind of
broke it down to spring, latesummer, early fall.
Those are correct season.
(22:02):
I mean it would be important toknow what their food source is,
but not as important as knowingduring season, because if
that's where you're looking, youwant to know what you're
looking for.
So what are they looking for inspring?
What's their food sources?
Speaker 3 (22:13):
So you got to remember.
When the bear wakes up, he'slike me in the morning, it's
just not pretty before coffee,you know.
He wakes up out of his den andhe's really slow to get started.
They don't just come online andbecome a walking stomach.
It can take upwards of twoweeks before they leave the den
site and so they'll be aroundthe den site, you know, kind of
groggy.
Their body's coming back online.
(22:34):
And there's also been somestudies done that are quite
interesting to me on foot pads.
So when you look at the pad ofa bear when they're fresh out of
the den they're softer and theyhave to harden up right and so
the the bears are shedding thosein the den and again.
So when they first come out inthe spring they're a little more
(22:55):
tender-footed.
Okay, and one of the things Ilove about the spring bear is
that's when their claws are justpristine.
When they come out of the denthey haven't been digging and
tearing stuff up and you look attheir claws and they're just
absolutely pristine andbeautiful.
So he comes online.
Now he's going to start eatingfood.
He's going to look for simplefoods to digest to start with
(23:16):
and then, once his body is fullyup and going.
Boy, if it fits in his mouthit's down the hatch right.
And when you watch a springbear in the habitat, you do not
see a bear just sitting in oneplace and feeding.
He's traveling and eating,constantly traveling, and
they're much more difficult, Ithink, in that regard, to get in
(23:37):
front of and to try to find agood place to waylay them,
because they're just flat,moving and they're much more
difficult, I think, in thatregard, to get in front of and
to try to find a good place towaylay them, because they're
just flat, moving and they'renot even like trying.
I mean, they're not running,they're just walking.
But they can walk at a prettygood clip and so they travel
through the topography reallyquickly, whereas our fall bear,
he might be on a food source alot longer.
So if he's in a huckleberrypatch, he's committed for a
(23:58):
while be on a food source a lotlonger.
So if he's in a huckleberrypatch, he's committed for a
while.
You know he's going to bestuffing his face.
He's not just walking throughthe patch and then moving on.
So there's two differentfeeding styles and how they're
moving.
Okay, so spring sources you'vegot the wild strawberries, any
kind of green grasses.
If anyone has horses they knowthe spring grasses are really
high in sugar content and thatis like bear candy, right, okay.
(24:18):
And then anytime you're in anykind of a timber managed area, a
lot of them spray the roadswith clover for erosion control,
and that is a huge favorite ofthe bears in the springtime.
If you walk down an old loggingroad and you see clover with
the center eight out of it,that's almost, you know,
(24:39):
guaranteed to be a bear.
He just can't help himself okayso he'll meander down there and
stuff his face through that.
And then, as you know, theseasons change, their food
changes and you'll get into theoh my goodness.
The huckleberry plant itself isa year-round food source it's
not just.
Speaker 1 (24:55):
will they eat more than just the berries?
Yeah, Okay.
Speaker 3 (24:58):
So they eat the plant , the bush itself, the leaves.
They will also do stumping.
So they'll tear apart a hugestump to get the bugs inside of
it, or grubs, any kind of downedtimber.
They'll rip up for the samething, you'll see, and it looks
like a D8 cat went through.
They just tear the stuff out ofeverything.
So those are some food sources.
(25:20):
Yes, they're still going to bepredating.
So when you get a big old boar,he didn't maintain that muscle
mass by only eating vegetation.
And yes, I know the study.
I've read them too, but I'vealso read some studies that are
quite interesting.
On it was elk survival in amultiple predator environment.
It was really, really awell-done paper Because usually
(25:42):
our biologists will pick aspecial animal, a wolf right and
they're studying the wolf andit's whatever.
This was, all the predatorsthrown in the box and said, okay
, what's taking the elk at whatage group?
And I found it reallyinteresting.
So the first 30 days of life,the predominant predator was the
black bear, and that's becausehe can smell them where the
other predators can't Because,remember, he has such a huge
(26:03):
great sense of smell.
So he can sniff those babies outfaster.
And then, from days 45 on, itbecame more of the cougar.
But what's of interest of that?
Although it's not scientificand this is where we have to be
careful with observation versusscience which is repeatable,
it's not just observable on mygame cameras.
More than once I'll have, let'ssay, a doe with her fawn go by
(26:24):
and this is an august camera.
So right after she went by likethe time stamp was about a
minute difference I had a boargo by the camera and his nose is
on the game trail where theyjust went, and so you can
actively see this bear in theact of smelling out and going
after that particular fawn.
(26:44):
And then then, just by analysis, right.
So you have the doe going bythe camera all the time, and she
was very easy to tell becauseshe had a big slash mark on her
side.
So she'd go by the camera withher fawn, go by the camera with
her fawn.
The bear went by the cameraafter the fawn and then from
that point on she'd go by thecamera without a fawn.
(27:05):
Yes.
So the math is right.
Here we are in August and ittook.
So it's not just a specifiedtime of year, it's opportunistic
.
There's a piece of meat, I'mgoing to eat it, right, so
bearing that in mind.
So there are specific foodsources that are year-round and
then there's specific foodsources that are only certain
(27:27):
times of the year that they'regoing to want them.
Speaker 1 (27:30):
I've actually seen that in play.
It wasn't a bear, it was acougar Doe walking by with two
fawns, walking by with two fawnsmultiple days, multiple times
on camera.
And then I caught a cougarwalking through one day and then
after that it was doe, walkingby with one fawn.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, so I thought of what thething that I forgot about their
(27:53):
sense of smell that I was goingto mention.
Yeah, so somebody mentioned soputting out trail cams, the
difference between, like yourstandard battery and lithium ion
.
He said that they can smellstandard batteries.
Speaker 3 (28:05):
They can smell anything.
So I do not recommend havingbacon grease on your hands when
you're deploying your cameras,and that's the thing is we
always talk about.
Speaker 1 (28:13):
so one of the things is we put our cameras up high.
We don't actually put them downlow.
Then we don't have to get thebare boxes.
Yeah.
And we put them, like on thearms.
Hme makes some that you screwinto the side of the tree and I
put them there.
I'm tall, so it helps.
Speaker 3 (28:29):
I was going to say I'm a short little person.
Speaker 1 (28:38):
I can put them up.
Typically, mine are six and ahalf seven feet up and you know
I go out and I'm wearing thenitrile gloves and you know
making sure I've like wiped downmy cameras and everything and
they're still walking up.
And that was the only thingthat actually kind of made sense
is.
Oh yeah, I just kind of putwhatever battery in because I
would have bears and I have.
I actually did a post aboutthis.
Bears are bad at selfiesbecause I have three or four
(28:59):
different sets with cameras upand all I have is their forehead
and their eyes looking into thecamera yeah, I've had several
of those.
But I was like, how are theystill picking up on the smell?
Speaker 3 (29:11):
It's trace scents, it's trace Things that our nose
can't pick up, or other animals.
Speaker 1 (29:16):
Oh, absolutely, yeah.
Speaker 3 (29:17):
But they can.
So when my kids were little youknow you make kids giggle you
say something terrible, so I'dbe like, yeah, yeah, bears can
sniff a fart out of a whirlwind,and that's the truth of it.
I mean, their, their sense ofsmell is so great that it's very
difficult, very difficult forus to hide a scent from them.
They're gonna pick it up.
Yeah, I am not concerned, whenI'm putting my cameras out, that
(29:38):
they're gonna smell them.
I'm worried about it, other thanthe standpoint of you, know, I
really don't want them to eatthem yes because I've had that,
you know and I have as well.
Yeah they've had an honorabledeath, that's what I call it.
Or I had a bear.
He left the camera alone, buthe chewed up my python cable, so
I couldn't get the cable backthrough to keep her because it's
no longer round.
(29:59):
I don't know if you've ever seenthe inside of a python cable,
but it's a bunch of littlestrands and they kind of went.
So they're all pokey everywhich way and I'm in the middle
of nowhere with no tools to.
So I'm looking for rocks to tryto beat it back into round
somehow to get it back to thekeeper.
So I get my camera.
But that wasn't interesting.
So things like that happen.
But I'm not concerned about myscent.
(30:21):
Putting cameras in and scentcontrol, that kind of thing, I'm
not really worried about it.
I am concerned when I go intomy set which we can talk about
later about that kind of a dealfor scent control.
Bears are so stinking curious,like they're going to check your
stuff out.
Speaker 1 (30:36):
And I would say, when I'm putting out cameras, I'm
less, it's more of.
I don't want this bear to eatmy camera.
I don't.
I don't need to buy morecameras.
Speaker 3 (30:45):
Yeah, they're not getting any cheaper.
Speaker 1 (30:47):
And that's why it's not so much that they're
checking things out, it's just Idon't want to buy more cameras.
Speaker 3 (30:54):
Exactly.
Speaker 1 (30:55):
To replace the cameras that are constantly
getting destroyed.
So I do have the fortunate luckof where I hunt.
I have no cell service, so Ican buy the cheap cameras,
because I have to go out thereanyway and pull the SD cards.
Speaker 3 (31:06):
Most of the places that I am deploying cameras,
there's no cell service.
There's none.
So I always laugh when I go inand I need more cameras.
They will.
Oh, here's our cellular.
I can't use those.
Speaker 1 (31:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (31:17):
I have no cell service and they look at you
like you're crazy.
I'm like look, this is not thecity.
Yes, I'm in the middle ofnowhere and deploying cameras,
so cellular service does me nogood.
Speaker 1 (31:26):
But they're great because the batteries last
longer anyway.
Yes, true so going back to food.
So spring, late summer, earlyfall.
So when we're getting intothose seasons, what are they
looking for?
Speaker 3 (31:38):
You're going to see.
You know our August 1 openerand again it's dependent on
where you're at in WashingtonState.
But I've picked huckleberriesas soon as July and done really
well.
We usually pick enough to makea pie every year for Christmas.
That's just family tradition.
So I try to keep a constant eyeon when the berry crop is
(32:00):
ripening.
So August is really good a lotof times for our berries and as
it progresses you'll see themore hotter areas they'll start
to burn up.
The berries become like raisins, right, they're not so good.
Then I'm going to move moretowards the creek areas where
there's constant water andcooler temperatures, and you'll
see fresh berries there, soclear into September, we'll have
berries.
(32:20):
And what kind of berries?
Well, where are you at?
You know?
We're talking blackberries, theevil blackberry.
It grows everywhere.
So blackberries, thimbleberries, chokecherries, pick a berry.
So when I'm talking to peoplethat are new about going out
(32:41):
into the field and looking forfood for bears, we'll call it
we're not just looking for bears, we're becoming more of a
science.
So we're a botanist.
We're going to be a botanistfor a while, so I'm going to
take some tools with me.
Old school I probably have acouple books on plant
(33:01):
identification so that I knowwhat it looks like throughout
the year.
I might know what a huckleberryplant looks like because the
berries on it, but do I knowwhat it looks like without the
berry?
Speaker 1 (33:10):
on it Without the berries.
Speaker 3 (33:11):
Do I know what the flowers look like, et cetera.
Speaker 1 (33:14):
And the red versus purple because they look
different.
Speaker 3 (33:17):
And they have different varieties.
And then currants Do I knowwhat a currant looks like?
Do I know what they look likewhen they're not ripe yet?
Th a currant looks like.
Do I know what they look likewhen they're not ripe yet?
Thimbleberries same thing youpick a food source and learning
what it looks like throughout.
So books are one.
The other one that they have is, of course, this modern age.
(33:40):
I have an app on my phonecalled Picture this.
I can take a photo of aparticular plant.
Speaker 1 (33:43):
Yes, I actually have that app.
Speaker 3 (33:44):
And I can take a picture of it.
And a lot of times I don't havecell service, so I have to wait
till I get back in cell serviceand then I can upload the photo
and I can determine what thatplant was and then find out is
that really something a bearwould eat, or is it a they're
not touching?
that you know.
So sometimes that processstarts because I've seen bear
scat and I'm trying to figureout what it was that they ate
(34:05):
Like.
What is that thing that's intheir scat?
And then that helps medetermine where I'm going to
pick them up in the landscape.
So there's a place where theylike to eat this mountain ash,
and I took this picture of itand I use it in my seminars
because it's really importantthat people realize how far they
can travel.
The nearest source of mountainash to that pile of poo was a
(34:26):
quarter mile away.
So what that told me was I'mnot in his feeding area, I'm in
his travel area.
Okay.
So I'm going to mark this as aplace to watch him and maybe put
a camera up or find a place toplace a stand, because a lot of
times in the fall, some of thetopography is so thick you may
(34:46):
not be able to get them in thefood source.
Yeah, it's great when you canfind them in the big huckleberry
fields.
You know I'm talking the bigones, but when you think about
how tall they are, they candisappear, like all you see is a
swath as they go through thefood.
Yeah, right, you can't see thebear.
And there's other places wherethat's not true.
There's little openings andwhatever, and they just happen
(35:06):
to step out and, okay, there'syour shot opportunity.
But again, it's a changing itfrom an incidental and an
accidental to a 100% targeted.
I know he's going to comethrough here.
So this is a place and it'sbecause I based it on the food
source that was available to himat that time to him at that
(35:30):
time.
Speaker 1 (35:30):
Okay, do they and this could be true for both
spring and fall mushrooms Dothey eat mushrooms?
Sure, okay, sure, anyparticular kind that they might
favor, or is it just?
Speaker 3 (35:36):
You know it's an interesting question.
I think that again, it's aseasonal thing, what's available
at the time, and then a bearpreference.
So it's just like us I prefer amocha, my husband prefers
sugar-free vanilla latte.
Okay, we both like coffee, okay, but a little bit different,
and I think it's the same withthe bears.
(35:57):
There's individuals in therethat they're going to prefer.
They have a taste for aspecific food source over
another source over another.
Speaker 1 (36:10):
Okay, and I wondered about that, one of my deer sets.
I went in there to brush in myground blind, and I started
looking around and all of asudden I noticed that I was in a
field of chanterelles.
Speaker 3 (36:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (36:19):
And no animal came in to eat them.
I'd never caught a bear, so Ijust kind of wondered.
In spring, I would imagine,morels are out.
Sure there's other ones, so itdidn't seem to attract them.
So but I don't know if, becausewhen I saw them in that
particular set it was, I wouldsay, late july, early august,
(36:40):
and they were coming to smellthe.
Actually it might have beenearly early july or j or June,
but they were coming in to smellthe minerals and all of that
stuff that I put out, proteinpowders, but not particularly
that Okay, and I know, and wekind of can end on this part,
(37:03):
the weather will cause them togo down.
Is lack of food source alsosomething that could push them
to go down and go into theirdens?
Speaker 3 (37:11):
So denning is an interesting another one.
I think it's all interesting soI have to pardon me on that,
but I'm fascinated by thesecreatures.
So not all bears hibernate.
It's going to be based on wherethey're at and there's other
places where they're hibernatingfor six months, so long, long
time and in its topography based.
(37:33):
You think of a bear where it'salways warm, right, it just
doesn't get very cold he has hehas no reason to go den, yeah,
unless, unless it's like a sow,and then she'll den.
But that's only to give birth toher cubs.
It's not to go lay down for herwinter sleep, right, yeah, and
then there'll den, but that'sonly to give birth to her cubs.
It's not to go lay down for herwinter sleep, yeah, and then
there's other places wherethere's just no food for those
six months.
So the wisest and smartest wayto survive is to go den and
(37:56):
hibernate, and so that's part ofit, and I lost the first part
of your question.
Speaker 1 (38:06):
As far as with weather, and we'll get into more
talking about the weather butif does food source and you
answered that that food sourcecan push them into their den, if
there's just nothing left toeat, which I mean that's almost
an instinctual thing with wherethey're at.
And I know also, like I wouldimagine, time of year changes
(38:26):
depending on yeah, like withweather, so thinking, and when
the food sources are available,because I've gone down to
Northern California andblackberries are.
They're not even close to beingripe up here, and then I'm
traveling 300 miles south andthere's blackberries everywhere
you know they've started,started to ripen.
(38:46):
So I would imagine, yeah,depending on where you are, what
parallel?
Speaker 3 (38:50):
or yes, you know, yes .
So that's what brings up thequestion of elevation.
I get asked that a lot.
What elevation do I look at?
What elevation do I look at?
I mean, it's constant and and Ialways kind of cringe a little
bit because it's okay, let's say, let's say it was, they're
always going to be at 2,000 feet.
Well, is 2,001 too far?
2,010 feet right?
(39:12):
Yeah.
There's no perfect litmus test.
I think of elevation, whereyou're going to find the bear.
It's based on the food.
Speaker 1 (39:20):
So food is like the consistency.
Speaker 3 (39:22):
Absolutely the consistent variable.
Speaker 1 (39:23):
There's no bear Bottom line Consistency.
Speaker 3 (39:24):
Absolutely.
If there's no food, there's nobear.
Bottom line no food, no bear.
That is a rule that you cantake home with you.
He might be traveling throughan area that doesn't have food
to go get to food, but hisdefinitely.
I mean, they're very simplecreatures, right?
They need food, they need water, they need a friend now and
then.
Yeah.
Okay At a specific time of year.
Other than that they're fine ontheir own.
(39:45):
So very much food related inhow I scout.
Speaker 1 (39:50):
Okay.
Now, actually, that raises aquestion Will the boars breed
multiple sows?
Yes, okay, yes, they will.
Speaker 3 (40:03):
So it's not just they pair up and no, no, no.
They have no moral compunctionwhatsoever, none, no.
Speaker 1 (40:08):
Does it?
Will it drive their behavior asfar as?
Because you said that a boarwill have a bigger range?
Yes, he will.
So is that them looking forsows during the breeding season
or are they driven?
Does that help drive theirinstincts?
Speaker 3 (40:24):
Absolutely so.
They will do things they justshouldn't normally do.
Okay, you know, just like adeer and rut, they'll.
They'll do behavior thatnormally, when their brain is
fully operational, they're notgonna, they're just not gonna do
that.
Yeah, start getting stupid, yeahso they might be out more in
(40:45):
the opens.
A sow can lead them into aplace that they normally would
not maybe step into.
They might be on the fringes,but their instinct is such right
they don't want to be seen bypeople and messed with.
They want to be left alone.
So they might let's call it aclear cut.
We'll just take an example.
So a sow might be in, you know,in the springtime, stuff her
(41:08):
face in a clear cut that theboar usually would walk around
the edges of, and he mightfilter in a little bit and you
catch him on the edges of it.
But because she's in the center, he's in the center.
So it gives us anotheropportunity to size him up and
look him over, and the same istrue of ridgelines or any kind
(41:29):
of an opening.
She'll draw him into thoseopenings for us.
So there's two things happeningin the spring.
One is the sow leading him inthe openings.
The other one's going to justbe his hunger.
When you look at the habitat inthe springtime and you look into
the trees, there's nothing,it's just like an empty zone.
There's no bushes, nothing'sgreened out yet, and so those
(41:49):
bears are forced to come toopenings or south-facing slopes,
these kinds of things to getthat early forage.
That's why I prefer this isjust me.
I prefer really dense habitat.
I love the thicker the better,because it's just again that
game of chess.
It forces them to certainregions that they have to come
to to eat.
They're going to be there, theyhave no choice.
(42:11):
That's the only food that'savailable to them.
Speaker 1 (42:13):
Which is why we're probably seeing a lot, because
we are looking for the thick,thick, nasty stuff, looking for
deer, and that's probably whywe're finding a lot of bears on
ours.
Yeah, thanks everyone forjoining us for part two of Bear
Hunting with Heather Aldrich.
Join.
Welcome back to the Blacktail Coach Podcast.
I'm Aaron.
This week, part two of bearhunting with Heather Aldrich.
Okay, so now let's get into thehunt.
Sure, so we've talked, and Ithink it's really important
always to go over a lot of theinformation we went over
previously.
It just is, you know, we're notin the day where you just go
(00:24):
out hunting, you don't have tothink about it.
There are more, many more lawsand rules and everything to
follow.
So so now we want to besuccessful when we if our time
is going to be limited, yeah, wewant to be successful in those,
in those limits.
And you know, while we'repursuing our trophies and one of
the things we always talk aboutis, there's records for bear or
(00:49):
for any animal.
But then there's trophies.
And what is your trophy?
Because that ends up being aparticular thing a bear you've
been chasing for a particularamount of time.
For me it was last year.
I actually got my first buck,nice, and I was able to hunt him
with a pistol.
Oh, wow, both trophies.
You know, the deer was notrecord book at all.
(01:10):
But now we want to get into howdo we become successful bear
hunters?
So let's start out Well.
Let's talk about scouting forbear.
Okay, so for you is scouting ayear-round process.
What's the year look like?
Let's start off talking aboutwhat the year looks like.
Okay, for e-scouting, possibly,or maybe you're traveling out.
(01:33):
If it's an out-of-state hunt,sure, how does the year look?
Speaker 3 (01:37):
So I live, breathe and eat bear hunting.
So there's a lot of things thatgo into my scouting.
So basically it's year-roundfor me as best I can.
You know, obviously there'sgoing to be a point where
they're in the den and you can'tsee them, right.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
That doesn't mean that I stop reading or paying
attention to units, so I kind ofcome about it from am I going
to be doing a spring hunt or afall hunt?
That's my first, my firstdividing point for the scouting
and what I will do.
There's some things that aresimilar, but there's going to be
an obvious break between thespring and the fall and where
(02:13):
I'm going to look in the habitatfor them.
So that was my first questionthere.
The next one is is this anout-of-state hunt or is it an
in-state hunt?
Because that might limit eithermy time or my ability to be
there because of work anddriving and all the things right
.
Another one's going to be isyour tag good for one unit or is
(02:34):
it good for the entire state?
Okay, and that kind of putsanother box on us.
So what I'm looking at, Idescribe it as a chessboard,
right, and it's the way we grewup playing chess and to me,
getting that specific bear ischeckmate.
I've done all the things rightand I've gotten to the end point
, which was the goal of fillingmy tag.
And it might not be filling mytag.
(02:55):
Go back to your trophy.
It might not be on the biggestbear in the mountain, it might
be a bear that I picked outbecause I absolutely love their
color of hide.
They're just so beautiful thatthat's the bear I chose.
So those are someconsiderations.
So let's start withgeneralities.
(03:17):
I'm going to start scouting forbear.
Where am I going to begin?
A lot of people, when theyfirst start hunting bear,
they're going to hunt in a unit.
They've been hunting elk anddeer in.
Nothing wrong with that.
It's a great place to start.
Maybe they've seen a bear therebefore and now they're like I
want to be a bear hunter, I'mgoing to start picking these up,
and so they already knowsomething about the unit and
(03:37):
they have some starting points.
That's good, and from there youknow, you can let me back up a
step.
So when I think about thosepeople, I think about myself and
how I can get stuck in ruts andback to the being adaptable
thing.
It's very important that whenwe look at a unit for a new
species that maybe we've huntedfor 20, 25 years, that we open
(04:00):
our eyes and look at itdifferently.
So we need to be careful to notalways go back the same
hillside, the same ridge, thesame bottom, the same meadow,
the same whatever.
Maybe that worked for elkbecause that's what you were
hunting but, it might notnecessarily work for bears in
that unit.
So looking at it with fresh eyes.
If you're going to a brand newunit, that's really good a lot
(04:22):
of times, I think, for people,because they do come into it
automatically with a fresh setof ice and it's easier for them
to kind of break it apart.
So that's the first bit.
So let's say spring hunt.
I want to start learning a unitI'm going to go back through.
I'm going to look at all theharvest reports and maybe I
(04:42):
heard about this unit to thegrapevine A lot of times I do.
I don't know how others, butfor me, you know, I'll hear
there was a great bear and theytook a large one, or they took a
color phase, and you know somespecific piece of data that
piqued my interest and I wentokay that's my.
That's going to be a unit I'mgoing to look at.
So I'm going to go back there,I'm going to look at all the
harvest reports and I'm going totry to figure out what that's
(05:04):
looking like and take them witha grain of salt for any kind of
a spring information Because,again, you might have a really
low year but it was based onaccess they couldn't get in,
where some people might see thatas a problem.
I kind of laugh a little bit andthis is my husband means it,
I'm sure, in a good way.
This is where he calls me thecrazy bear hunter.
But other people see a berm andthey're like, oh man, I'm not
(05:26):
going past that thing.
I look at it and go okay, howfar is it to the place I want to
be?
How many miles do I have towalk?
So we're parking the truck andwe're going and he's just
groaning, you know, but that's away to limit, you know, other
competition that are not willingto do that.
And what's funny is the guysthat I talk to when we say
something like that they wouldnot do that for a bear but if it
(05:47):
was an elk dude.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
Absolutely.
Speaker 3 (05:50):
Right, they're going for it.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
So let me ask you about this.
So we talk about deer, and thisis you know for scouting, that
we're not looking for deer,we're looking for habitat,
because if you find habitat, thedeer will be there and there's
a lot of guys.
To get to their spot will gomiles and miles past a gate or
(06:13):
something like that, and we'relike, if the habitat is right
next to the gate, hunt rightnext to the gate.
Yes, and we've proven time andtime again that a lot of times
you don't have to go more than ahalf mile in Sure, is there
something similar?
So and I'm asking this becauseall of my sets are within a half
(06:34):
mile, some are even closer tothe gate, just a couple of
hundred yards to go in, and Ihave bear on all of my sets that
have popped up Is that?
I mean, is it one of thosewhere it's kind of better to go
miles and miles in if you, or isit just you go where you need
to go?
Speaker 3 (06:50):
So there are things that I that I like to tell
people about bears.
The first is, and I will get toyour question, here and I
probably jumped ahead of like ifI just waited, you'd answer
that at some point.
So there are generalities ofwhat bears will do, and then
there's individuals within thatthat will step outside the norm
(07:12):
and do something that's justcompletely odd and unusual and
that's pretty predictable intheir unpredictability.
Okay, they're very adaptableanimals and it's something that
I admire about them is theirability to change with weather
or topography changes.
You know, fires, flooding, etc.
They're going to make it,they're going to find a way to
(07:33):
survive.
Having said that, they can becloser to people than people
realize.
So, yes, there's that mentality,I think, especially because of
elk hunting, where you know theyget behind a gate and oh, I got
to go five miles to get awayfrom all the people, and that
bear might not be that far inRight, he just he has no need to
be and because of topographyand whatnot.
(07:55):
And I know there was studiesdone on how roads affect elk and
elk movement.
What's interesting is that isnot really true of our black
bear.
So I've got cameras set up thatare literally probably 20 yards
off of a gravel road, becausethe bears have learned how to
basically pattern people is whatI call it.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (08:16):
And so they will cross in between these streams
of people at the oddest times,and that's one of their travel
routes, which is why my camera'sthere, so they are not afraid
of roads and they're not afraidto be close to roads.
In fact, one of my favoritehunting spots in the whole world
we've taken three bears out ofit within a hundred yards of one
stump is literally, oh mygoodness, it's probably a
(08:39):
hundred yards off of a gravelroad and they just come right
through it.
So I'm not too concerned abouthow far I may need to travel, if
that makes sense.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
Yeah, okay, so is there a difference between
spring and summer?
As far as Actually?
Let's go back and let me askabout e-scouting.
Do you start with e-scouting,or is that even something that
factors in?
Speaker 3 (09:04):
It does factor in.
Whether I start with it or notis dependent on the unit and
maybe the information.
Is this a new unit or maybethis is an adjacent unit to
something I've already beenhunting and it piqued my
interest and now I'm going tostart snooping around.
So in this day and age, my, mygosh, we have so many, so many
things available to us formapping.
(09:25):
Really, you can get all kindsof stuff right.
So it's pretty easy to look atthe topography and start, you
know, rolling through it andlooking for areas of interest.
And that's based on.
The areas of interest are basedon things that I've seen over
the years of where thelikelihood is to find a bear.
(09:46):
If there's a good biologist forthe area, then I would love to
talk to them.
And that's kind of a hit andmiss when it comes to our bears.
There's just not as much studyput into them.
So your biologist may have areally good handle of his unit,
he may not, or his region, butsometimes they do.
And so then I'll ask themspecific questions about their
(10:07):
density.
What they expect color wise,you know is it a higher density
of black bears at higher densityof color bear, kind of that
kind of an expectation.
What size bears are they seeingcoming out of that unit?
And they may gave us somespecific areas to go.
Look.
They may say I want you to gooff you know half mile creek off
non-mile road.
Okay, great, so I'm going to gothere.
They may say I want you to gooff you know half mile creek off
non-mile road, okay great, soI'm going to go there and I'm
(10:28):
going to.
That's going to be on one of mylittle markers that.
I'm going to put down to gocheck out.
If there's no bears in there,we need to remember that they
and this is going to go intopart of our scouting it may not
be because the biologist isincorrect.
You just may be in there at thewrong time of year.
So maybe that biologist sawthem and they consistently are
(10:48):
in there, but maybe it's a falltype habitat, so it's more of a
fall area that I would hunt asopposed to a spring habitat.
So again, it's not that theydon't know what they're talking
about, it's just you're in thereat the wrong time of year, so
that's something to factor in.
So e-scouting is very importantto me.
So that's something to factorin.
So e-scouting is very importantto me If I can save boots on
the ground to give me some moretime to look at an area before I
(11:10):
go into something very specific.
I feel like that's just beingsmart, yes, using your time
wisely.
Now, once I pick spots, I'mgoing to go check them out.
I may deploy cameras, I may not, depending on what I find and,
again, if I can get in thereearly enough.
This is really difficult to doin the spring.
Most of the time I'm not goingto be able to because there's
(11:31):
snow on the ground and I'm notgoing to be able to get my
cameras deployed before thebears are out.
Right, I just can't get there.
So I may set them up in thespring and then let them run
through the fall, let them soakthrough the fall areas and try
to get information on that.
So if I'm going to hunt the fall, then yes, absolutely
(11:53):
no-transcript.
I may be moving several ofthose cameras because I am
specifically setting them upwhere I expect them to be in the
spring.
They won't be there in the fall, but it gives you an idea of
what the population is like inthat specific unit, if that
makes sense.
Okay.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
Now this is, and I put it under my for my notes
here, under scouting and justbecause I couldn't think of
where else to put it now I'veseen multiple.
At times I've seen multiplebears on camera at the same time
, sure, and one time it was, youknow, I got my, my snapshot of
some some bear porn.
(12:30):
Is you know, daddy bear, mommybear, we're making some baby
bears.
And well, there was anothertime, and then this was the one
and I thought it was a boar anda sow, but there was a cub there
, fairly young, smaller cub, nottiny, but he was small, yeah,
(12:51):
okay, so I see two full-sizebear and one cub, sure, and so I
thought, okay, well, mommy,daddy and baby are there.
But then I was corrected sayingno, no, you wouldn't see a boar
around a cub because he'dprobably want to eat it.
So what kind of groupings wouldyou?
(13:12):
If you put out cameras, whatkind of groupings might you see
on camera?
Speaker 3 (13:18):
So that's a really interesting concept and one that
I have studied because it'sfascinating to me.
But basically, what youprobably saw was a familial
group.
So let's say a sow has two cubsand let's say they make it to
maturation, ie the bears arefull grown and they're in the
spring and they're going todisperse, and we'll say that one
(13:38):
is a sow cub and one is a boarcub.
So the boar cub is going todisperse a lot further away from
mama.
There've been documentedstudies of over 150 miles away
from his birthplace to set up anew home range.
The sow cub is going to set upa home range right next to mama.
Oh, okay.
So typically, when we see abunch of bears on a camera,
(14:03):
they're going to be a femalegroup, so it'll be a sow, you
know, whoever the original sowwas.
And then several of her get,and then the disbursement
pattern makes it so that theydon't have inbreeding.
That's why they you know theboar goes so far away, so no,
typically you will not see theboar.
Goes so far away, so no,typically you will not see a
(14:26):
boar unless he has ill intentand there's no way she would be
calmly walking by the camerawith a baby in tow.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
I had 200 pictures of this particular grouping
hanging out over the span of afew days.
Speaker 3 (14:34):
Yeah so you're just not going to see that kind of
yeah, so you're just not goingto see that kind of behavior
from them.
They know they are going to.
Going to.
Bears are opportunists.
That's the bottom line.
Yeah.
Food's food.
You know I liken them to ateenage boy.
You know he comes home and he'slooking for food and he just
got back from the all you caneat buffet and now he wants a
snack.
You know.
I mean, it's one of those.
(14:54):
Yeah.
Yeah, pretty much.
So yes, they are opportunistsand so you're not going to see
that kind of a thing typically.
Could it happen?
Sure, because bears would liketo prove me a liar, so I always
put that little proviso in there, but typically, no, okay.
Speaker 1 (15:13):
Yeah, that was just.
It was a purely curious thingbecause I'm like, okay, and it
wasn't where I could tell fromthe pictures me being fairly new
to all this it's like I knowwhat a cub is and I knew because
one of them was turned aroundand got a really good picture
head shape and knowing it was asow and just assuming it was a
sow because a cub being there,sure, but okay, then I have this
(15:33):
other almost full-sized bearhanging around at the same time
and I had all three of them.
So it was one of those likewhat, what am I looking at here?
Speaker 3 (15:42):
so my husband's actually seen that in person.
He was out deer hunting on theeast side of the state and he
came across a sow with two youngcubs I mean, it's late season,
so a little bit older, not notlike brand new.
And then a you know, a two anda half three year old sow with
them, so there's four bears onthe hillside.
(16:05):
So that was her baby from theyear before.
Right, okay.
And so they're just hanging out.
So it's not unheard of.
It does happen.
Speaker 1 (16:13):
Okay.
So when you figure out likeyou've done your e-scouting
you've called your gamebiologist, all things that you
know we definitely support doing.
We do for hunting blacktail aswell, or anything.
Sure, okay, you've decided onan area and boots on the ground.
Speaker 3 (16:32):
Yes, boots on the ground, absolutely.
Again, it's the game of chess.
In order to play the gameeffectively, you need to
understand your opponent.
In this case, it's a bear.
So I think basic informationabout the animal itself helps us
to locate them in thetopography.
So if you know the things theylike and how they function in
life, you're going to be able topick them up Anytime we move to
(16:56):
boots on the ground.
We've made some decisions basedon information, data, data,
data right.
The more data I have, thebetter decisions I can make
about where I'm going to startlooking.
And again, it's a knowledgebase, but also wisdom.
So the knowledge base is I knowthis is a food source in the
spring and I may be coming backhere to hunt in the fall, so I
(17:16):
may put the camera in right toget those pictures and get an
idea of what is there for thebears.
But I know that's not where I'mgoing to be hunting in the fall.
So I'll be moving those thingsand it's not a big deal.
It's just going to move to thelandscape like they do.
So I think one of the mostimportant ABCs of our bears when
we're scouting is to rememberthey are omnivores but they're
(17:37):
seasonal eaters, so they'regoing to move through the
landscape eating what'sseasonally available to them,
and that's going to change right, just as our year changes.
You'll see things in the springthat you don't see in the fall
for that specific food source.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
So I tell people.
Speaker 3 (17:53):
Okay, let's do what I call a food survey.
So when I go into an area andI've chosen that spot, I'm going
to look at that with the ideaof what is available to eat for
that animal at the time.
My tag is open.
It's a very important question.
If you have the answer ofnothing, that is not the place
to be, and it might be reallyhot right then when you're in
(18:15):
there, right?
You've got all the sign, you'vegot bear poop and they're on the
camera and all the things aregoing well.
But then you come back to thatwhen your tag is open and
they're not there.
Well, it's not because thebears disappeared into the
nothingness, right?
They didn't migrate.
They have just moved intoanother part of their habitat on
a different food source.
So, we need to educateourselves on what food sources
are available in the unit thatwe're hunting at the time that
(18:37):
we're going to hunt.
Speaker 1 (18:40):
Okay, before we go further, what is the range of a
black bear typically?
And I know this like an average, because lots of things can
determine what the size of arange, but what is the average?
Speaker 3 (18:53):
So average for a sow is going to be anywhere from two
and a half to 10 square miles,and then our boars, you know,
five to 50 square miles.
I tell people that's based on acouple of factors.
One's going to be yourtopography, the other is going
to be your population densityand then the third is what food
is available.
Those affect how they movethrough and how far they need to
range to make a living.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
Okay.
So when you're going backthinking about scouting, when
you initially get boots on theground, what so?
The only thing that I wouldknow to look for is scat, Sure
and potentially bear peels.
Speaker 3 (19:29):
Sure.
Speaker 1 (19:30):
What else I mean, and I don't even know what that's
telling me, but what are some ofthe signs that you're looking
for when you have boots on theground, and what are those signs
telling you?
Speaker 3 (19:43):
So I've come about it from a little bit different
perspective on how that works.
I'm looking for the foodsources.
Okay.
And once I locate the foodsources, then I can start to
locate the signs.
If you're on something thebear's on let's say
huckleberries you're going tosee bear crap, right, and it's
going to have huckleberries init.
Obviously he's eating here, andthen you might pick up the
(20:04):
tracks.
So then you get an idea of thesize of the bear, his direction
to travel, et cetera.
So I'm going to start with thefood base first.
Once I find the food base, Iknow I'm going to find bears
specific to that unit and youneed to be, again, adaptable.
Like they are, they're going tomove from food source to food
source.
So there's a time in the springwhere you'll be out and gosh,
(20:28):
the bears are everywhere.
They're just they're everywhereand you're just like, oh yeah,
it's hot, right.
And all of a sudden they justdisappear.
You can look in the same spotsthere's no bear, and it's's not
that they again moved, it'sthey've changed food sources and
you're on the wrong food source.
So typically I found there'slike a week where they can smell
that change in the, in the sapthat's running in the trees and,
(20:50):
boy, they're hitting the treeshard, like that's where they're
at, and you'll go in and you'llsee huge patches of timber where
they have been stripping thetrees and it's just interesting
how that happens.
But they have such anincredible sense of smell that
they know when that particularfood item is ripe, be it a berry
or a specific plant type.
(21:12):
A time of year Again, springtime, there's a really good time of
year where we get the biggerbores and it's because the cows
are dropping calves.
So that's a great place to goand set up.
We're not there for the elk,we're there for the bear that's
coming for the calf, and thebears learn that behavior year
after year.
You know, mama bear shows babybear.
(21:32):
Well, this is where you go getyour food.
So, again, it's always foodsource related.
If I get the food source down,I'm going to pick up the bears.
Speaker 1 (21:41):
So let's talk about food sources, and I kind of
broke it down to spring, latesummer, early fall.
Those are correct season.
(22:02):
I mean it would be important toknow what their food source is,
but not as important as knowingduring season, because if
that's where you're looking, youwant to know what you're
looking for.
So what are they looking for inspring?
What's their food sources?
Speaker 3 (22:13):
So you got to remember.
When the bear wakes up, he'slike me in the morning, it's
just not pretty before coffee,you know.
He wakes up out of his den andhe's really slow to get started.
They don't just come online andbecome a walking stomach.
It can take upwards of twoweeks before they leave the den
site and so they'll be aroundthe den site, you know, kind of
groggy.
Their body's coming back online.
(22:34):
And there's also been somestudies done that are quite
interesting to me on foot pads.
So when you look at the pad ofa bear when they're fresh out of
the den they're softer and theyhave to harden up right and so
the the bears are shedding thosein the den and again.
So when they first come out inthe spring they're a little more
(22:55):
tender-footed.
Okay, and one of the things Ilove about the spring bear is
that's when their claws are justpristine.
When they come out of the denthey haven't been digging and
tearing stuff up and you look attheir claws and they're just
absolutely pristine andbeautiful.
So he comes online.
Now he's going to start eatingfood.
He's going to look for simplefoods to digest to start with
(23:16):
and then, once his body is fullyup and going.
Boy, if it fits in his mouthit's down the hatch right.
And when you watch a springbear in the habitat, you do not
see a bear just sitting in oneplace and feeding.
He's traveling and eating,constantly traveling, and
they're much more difficult, Ithink, in that regard, to get in
(23:37):
front of and to try to find agood place to waylay them,
because they're just flat,moving and they're much more
difficult, I think, in thatregard, to get in front of and
to try to find a good place towaylay them, because they're
just flat, moving and they'renot even like trying.
I mean, they're not running,they're just walking.
But they can walk at a prettygood clip and so they travel
through the topography reallyquickly, whereas our fall bear,
he might be on a food source alot longer.
So if he's in a huckleberrypatch, he's committed for a
(23:58):
while be on a food source a lotlonger.
So if he's in a huckleberrypatch, he's committed for a
while.
You know he's going to bestuffing his face.
He's not just walking throughthe patch and then moving on.
So there's two differentfeeding styles and how they're
moving.
Okay, so spring sources you'vegot the wild strawberries, any
kind of green grasses.
If anyone has horses they knowthe spring grasses are really
high in sugar content and thatis like bear candy, right, okay.
(24:18):
And then anytime you're in anykind of a timber managed area, a
lot of them spray the roadswith clover for erosion control,
and that is a huge favorite ofthe bears in the springtime.
If you walk down an old loggingroad and you see clover with
the center eight out of it,that's almost, you know,
(24:39):
guaranteed to be a bear.
He just can't help himself okayso he'll meander down there and
stuff his face through that.
And then, as you know, theseasons change, their food
changes and you'll get into theoh my goodness.
The huckleberry plant itself isa year-round food source it's
not just.
Speaker 1 (24:55):
will they eat more than just the berries?
Yeah, Okay.
Speaker 3 (24:58):
So they eat the plant , the bush itself, the leaves.
They will also do stumping.
So they'll tear apart a hugestump to get the bugs inside of
it, or grubs, any kind of downedtimber.
They'll rip up for the samething, you'll see, and it looks
like a D8 cat went through.
They just tear the stuff out ofeverything.
So those are some food sources.
(25:20):
Yes, they're still going to bepredating.
So when you get a big old boar,he didn't maintain that muscle
mass by only eating vegetation.
And yes, I know the study.
I've read them too, but I'vealso read some studies that are
quite interesting.
On it was elk survival in amultiple predator environment.
It was really, really awell-done paper Because usually
(25:42):
our biologists will pick aspecial animal, a wolf right and
they're studying the wolf andit's whatever.
This was, all the predatorsthrown in the box and said, okay
, what's taking the elk at whatage group?
And I found it reallyinteresting.
So the first 30 days of life,the predominant predator was the
black bear, and that's becausehe can smell them where the
other predators can't Because,remember, he has such a huge
(26:03):
great sense of smell.
So he can sniff those babies outfaster.
And then, from days 45 on, itbecame more of the cougar.
But what's of interest of that?
Although it's not scientificand this is where we have to be
careful with observation versusscience which is repeatable,
it's not just observable on mygame cameras.
More than once I'll have, let'ssay, a doe with her fawn go by
(26:24):
and this is an august camera.
So right after she went by likethe time stamp was about a
minute difference I had a boargo by the camera and his nose is
on the game trail where theyjust went, and so you can
actively see this bear in theact of smelling out and going
after that particular fawn.
(26:44):
And then then, just by analysis, right.
So you have the doe going bythe camera all the time, and she
was very easy to tell becauseshe had a big slash mark on her
side.
So she'd go by the camera withher fawn, go by the camera with
her fawn.
The bear went by the cameraafter the fawn and then from
that point on she'd go by thecamera without a fawn.
(27:05):
Yes.
So the math is right.
Here we are in August and ittook.
So it's not just a specifiedtime of year, it's opportunistic
.
There's a piece of meat, I'mgoing to eat it, right, so
bearing that in mind.
So there are specific foodsources that are year-round and
then there's specific foodsources that are only certain
(27:27):
times of the year that they'regoing to want them.
Speaker 1 (27:30):
I've actually seen that in play.
It wasn't a bear, it was acougar Doe walking by with two
fawns, walking by with two fawnsmultiple days, multiple times
on camera.
And then I caught a cougarwalking through one day and then
after that it was doe, walkingby with one fawn.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, so I thought of what thething that I forgot about their
(27:53):
sense of smell that I was goingto mention.
Yeah, so somebody mentioned soputting out trail cams, the
difference between, like yourstandard battery and lithium ion
.
He said that they can smellstandard batteries.
Speaker 3 (28:05):
They can smell anything.
So I do not recommend havingbacon grease on your hands when
you're deploying your cameras,and that's the thing is we
always talk about.
Speaker 1 (28:13):
so one of the things is we put our cameras up high.
We don't actually put them downlow.
Then we don't have to get thebare boxes.
Yeah.
And we put them, like on thearms.
Hme makes some that you screwinto the side of the tree and I
put them there.
I'm tall, so it helps.
Speaker 3 (28:29):
I was going to say I'm a short little person.
Speaker 1 (28:38):
I can put them up.
Typically, mine are six and ahalf seven feet up and you know
I go out and I'm wearing thenitrile gloves and you know
making sure I've like wiped downmy cameras and everything and
they're still walking up.
And that was the only thingthat actually kind of made sense
is.
Oh yeah, I just kind of putwhatever battery in because I
would have bears and I have.
I actually did a post aboutthis.
Bears are bad at selfiesbecause I have three or four
(28:59):
different sets with cameras upand all I have is their forehead
and their eyes looking into thecamera yeah, I've had several
of those.
But I was like, how are theystill picking up on the smell?
Speaker 3 (29:11):
It's trace scents, it's trace Things that our nose
can't pick up, or other animals.
Speaker 1 (29:16):
Oh, absolutely, yeah.
Speaker 3 (29:17):
But they can.
So when my kids were little youknow you make kids giggle you
say something terrible, so I'dbe like, yeah, yeah, bears can
sniff a fart out of a whirlwind,and that's the truth of it.
I mean, their, their sense ofsmell is so great that it's very
difficult, very difficult forus to hide a scent from them.
They're gonna pick it up.
Yeah, I am not concerned, whenI'm putting my cameras out, that
(29:38):
they're gonna smell them.
I'm worried about it, other thanthe standpoint of you, know, I
really don't want them to eatthem yes because I've had that,
you know and I have as well.
Yeah they've had an honorabledeath, that's what I call it.
Or I had a bear.
He left the camera alone, buthe chewed up my python cable, so
I couldn't get the cable backthrough to keep her because it's
no longer round.
(29:59):
I don't know if you've ever seenthe inside of a python cable,
but it's a bunch of littlestrands and they kind of went.
So they're all pokey everywhich way and I'm in the middle
of nowhere with no tools to.
So I'm looking for rocks to tryto beat it back into round
somehow to get it back to thekeeper.
So I get my camera.
But that wasn't interesting.
So things like that happen.
But I'm not concerned about myscent.
(30:21):
Putting cameras in and scentcontrol, that kind of thing, I'm
not really worried about it.
I am concerned when I go intomy set which we can talk about
later about that kind of a dealfor scent control.
Bears are so stinking curious,like they're going to check your
stuff out.
Speaker 1 (30:36):
And I would say, when I'm putting out cameras, I'm
less, it's more of.
I don't want this bear to eatmy camera.
I don't.
I don't need to buy morecameras.
Speaker 3 (30:45):
Yeah, they're not getting any cheaper.
Speaker 1 (30:47):
And that's why it's not so much that they're
checking things out, it's just Idon't want to buy more cameras.
Speaker 3 (30:54):
Exactly.
Speaker 1 (30:55):
To replace the cameras that are constantly
getting destroyed.
So I do have the fortunate luckof where I hunt.
I have no cell service, so Ican buy the cheap cameras,
because I have to go out thereanyway and pull the SD cards.
Speaker 3 (31:06):
Most of the places that I am deploying cameras,
there's no cell service.
There's none.
So I always laugh when I go inand I need more cameras.
They will.
Oh, here's our cellular.
I can't use those.
Speaker 1 (31:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (31:17):
I have no cell service and they look at you
like you're crazy.
I'm like look, this is not thecity.
Yes, I'm in the middle ofnowhere and deploying cameras,
so cellular service does me nogood.
Speaker 1 (31:26):
But they're great because the batteries last
longer anyway.
Yes, true so going back to food.
So spring, late summer, earlyfall.
So when we're getting intothose seasons, what are they
looking for?
Speaker 3 (31:38):
You're going to see.
You know our August 1 openerand again it's dependent on
where you're at in WashingtonState.
But I've picked huckleberriesas soon as July and done really
well.
We usually pick enough to makea pie every year for Christmas.
That's just family tradition.
So I try to keep a constant eyeon when the berry crop is
(32:00):
ripening.
So August is really good a lotof times for our berries and as
it progresses you'll see themore hotter areas they'll start
to burn up.
The berries become like raisins, right, they're not so good.
Then I'm going to move moretowards the creek areas where
there's constant water andcooler temperatures, and you'll
see fresh berries there, soclear into September, we'll have
berries.
(32:20):
And what kind of berries?
Well, where are you at?
You know?
We're talking blackberries, theevil blackberry.
It grows everywhere.
So blackberries, thimbleberries, chokecherries, pick a berry.
So when I'm talking to peoplethat are new about going out
(32:41):
into the field and looking forfood for bears, we'll call it
we're not just looking for bears, we're becoming more of a
science.
So we're a botanist.
We're going to be a botanistfor a while, so I'm going to
take some tools with me.
Old school I probably have acouple books on plant
(33:01):
identification so that I knowwhat it looks like throughout
the year.
I might know what a huckleberryplant looks like because the
berries on it, but do I knowwhat it looks like without the
berry?
Speaker 1 (33:10):
on it Without the berries.
Speaker 3 (33:11):
Do I know what the flowers look like, et cetera.
Speaker 1 (33:14):
And the red versus purple because they look
different.
Speaker 3 (33:17):
And they have different varieties.
And then currants Do I knowwhat a currant looks like?
Do I know what they look likewhen they're not ripe yet?
Th a currant looks like.
Do I know what they look likewhen they're not ripe yet?
Thimbleberries same thing youpick a food source and learning
what it looks like throughout.
So books are one.
The other one that they have is, of course, this modern age.
(33:40):
I have an app on my phonecalled Picture this.
I can take a photo of aparticular plant.
Speaker 1 (33:43):
Yes, I actually have that app.
Speaker 3 (33:44):
And I can take a picture of it.
And a lot of times I don't havecell service, so I have to wait
till I get back in cell serviceand then I can upload the photo
and I can determine what thatplant was and then find out is
that really something a bearwould eat, or is it a they're
not touching?
that you know.
So sometimes that processstarts because I've seen bear
scat and I'm trying to figureout what it was that they ate
(34:05):
Like.
What is that thing that's intheir scat?
And then that helps medetermine where I'm going to
pick them up in the landscape.
So there's a place where theylike to eat this mountain ash,
and I took this picture of itand I use it in my seminars
because it's really importantthat people realize how far they
can travel.
The nearest source of mountainash to that pile of poo was a
(34:26):
quarter mile away.
So what that told me was I'mnot in his feeding area, I'm in
his travel area.
Okay.
So I'm going to mark this as aplace to watch him and maybe put
a camera up or find a place toplace a stand, because a lot of
times in the fall, some of thetopography is so thick you may
(34:46):
not be able to get them in thefood source.
Yeah, it's great when you canfind them in the big huckleberry
fields.
You know I'm talking the bigones, but when you think about
how tall they are, they candisappear, like all you see is a
swath as they go through thefood.
Yeah, right, you can't see thebear.
And there's other places wherethat's not true.
There's little openings andwhatever, and they just happen
(35:06):
to step out and, okay, there'syour shot opportunity.
But again, it's a changing itfrom an incidental and an
accidental to a 100% targeted.
I know he's going to comethrough here.
So this is a place and it'sbecause I based it on the food
source that was available to himat that time to him at that
(35:30):
time.
Speaker 1 (35:30):
Okay, do they and this could be true for both
spring and fall mushrooms Dothey eat mushrooms?
Sure, okay, sure, anyparticular kind that they might
favor, or is it just?
Speaker 3 (35:36):
You know it's an interesting question.
I think that again, it's aseasonal thing, what's available
at the time, and then a bearpreference.
So it's just like us I prefer amocha, my husband prefers
sugar-free vanilla latte.
Okay, we both like coffee, okay, but a little bit different,
and I think it's the same withthe bears.
(35:57):
There's individuals in therethat they're going to prefer.
They have a taste for aspecific food source over
another source over another.
Speaker 1 (36:10):
Okay, and I wondered about that, one of my deer sets.
I went in there to brush in myground blind, and I started
looking around and all of asudden I noticed that I was in a
field of chanterelles.
Speaker 3 (36:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (36:19):
And no animal came in to eat them.
I'd never caught a bear, so Ijust kind of wondered.
In spring, I would imagine,morels are out.
Sure there's other ones, so itdidn't seem to attract them.
So but I don't know if, becausewhen I saw them in that
particular set it was, I wouldsay, late july, early august,
(36:40):
and they were coming to smellthe.
Actually it might have beenearly early july or j or June,
but they were coming in to smellthe minerals and all of that
stuff that I put out, proteinpowders, but not particularly
that Okay, and I know, and wekind of can end on this part,
(37:03):
the weather will cause them togo down.
Is lack of food source alsosomething that could push them
to go down and go into theirdens?
Speaker 3 (37:11):
So denning is an interesting another one.
I think it's all interesting soI have to pardon me on that,
but I'm fascinated by thesecreatures.
So not all bears hibernate.
It's going to be based on wherethey're at and there's other
places where they're hibernatingfor six months, so long, long
time and in its topography based.
(37:33):
You think of a bear where it'salways warm, right, it just
doesn't get very cold he has hehas no reason to go den, yeah,
unless, unless it's like a sow,and then she'll den.
But that's only to give birth toher cubs.
It's not to go lay down for herwinter sleep, right, yeah, and
then there'll den, but that'sonly to give birth to her cubs.
It's not to go lay down for herwinter sleep, yeah, and then
there's other places wherethere's just no food for those
six months.
So the wisest and smartest wayto survive is to go den and
(37:56):
hibernate, and so that's part ofit, and I lost the first part
of your question.
Speaker 1 (38:06):
As far as with weather, and we'll get into more
talking about the weather butif does food source and you
answered that that food sourcecan push them into their den, if
there's just nothing left toeat, which I mean that's almost
an instinctual thing with wherethey're at.
And I know also, like I wouldimagine, time of year changes
(38:26):
depending on yeah, like withweather, so thinking, and when
the food sources are available,because I've gone down to
Northern California andblackberries are.
They're not even close to beingripe up here, and then I'm
traveling 300 miles south andthere's blackberries everywhere
you know they've started,started to ripen.
(38:46):
So I would imagine, yeah,depending on where you are, what
parallel?
Speaker 3 (38:50):
or yes, you know, yes .
So that's what brings up thequestion of elevation.
I get asked that a lot.
What elevation do I look at?
What elevation do I look at?
I mean, it's constant and and Ialways kind of cringe a little
bit because it's okay, let's say, let's say it was, they're
always going to be at 2,000 feet.
Well, is 2,001 too far?
2,010 feet right?
(39:12):
Yeah.
There's no perfect litmus test.
I think of elevation, whereyou're going to find the bear.
It's based on the food.
Speaker 1 (39:20):
So food is like the consistency.
Speaker 3 (39:22):
Absolutely the consistent variable.
Speaker 1 (39:23):
There's no bear Bottom line Consistency.
Speaker 3 (39:24):
Absolutely.
If there's no food, there's nobear.
Bottom line no food, no bear.
That is a rule that you cantake home with you.
He might be traveling throughan area that doesn't have food
to go get to food, but hisdefinitely.
I mean, they're very simplecreatures, right?
They need food, they need water, they need a friend now and
then.
Yeah.
Okay At a specific time of year.
Other than that they're fine ontheir own.
(39:45):
So very much food related inhow I scout.
Speaker 1 (39:50):
Okay.
Now, actually, that raises aquestion Will the boars breed
multiple sows?
Yes, okay, yes, they will.
Speaker 3 (40:03):
So it's not just they pair up and no, no, no.
They have no moral compunctionwhatsoever, none, no.
Speaker 1 (40:08):
Does it?
Will it drive their behavior asfar as?
Because you said that a boarwill have a bigger range?
Yes, he will.
So is that them looking forsows during the breeding season
or are they driven?
Does that help drive theirinstincts?
Speaker 3 (40:24):
Absolutely so.
They will do things they justshouldn't normally do.
Okay, you know, just like adeer and rut, they'll.
They'll do behavior thatnormally, when their brain is
fully operational, they're notgonna, they're just not gonna do
that.
Yeah, start getting stupid, yeahso they might be out more in
(40:45):
the opens.
A sow can lead them into aplace that they normally would
not maybe step into.
They might be on the fringes,but their instinct is such right
they don't want to be seen bypeople and messed with.
They want to be left alone.
So they might let's call it aclear cut.
We'll just take an example.
So a sow might be in, you know,in the springtime, stuff her
(41:08):
face in a clear cut that theboar usually would walk around
the edges of, and he mightfilter in a little bit and you
catch him on the edges of it.
But because she's in the center, he's in the center.
So it gives us anotheropportunity to size him up and
look him over, and the same istrue of ridgelines or any kind
(41:29):
of an opening.
She'll draw him into thoseopenings for us.
So there's two things happeningin the spring.
One is the sow leading him inthe openings.
The other one's going to justbe his hunger.
When you look at the habitat inthe springtime and you look into
the trees, there's nothing,it's just like an empty zone.
There's no bushes, nothing'sgreened out yet, and so those
(41:49):
bears are forced to come toopenings or south-facing slopes,
these kinds of things to getthat early forage.
That's why I prefer this isjust me.
I prefer really dense habitat.
I love the thicker the better,because it's just again that
game of chess.
It forces them to certainregions that they have to come
to to eat.
They're going to be there, theyhave no choice.
(42:11):
That's the only food that'savailable to them.
Speaker 1 (42:13):
Which is why we're probably seeing a lot, because
we are looking for the thick,thick, nasty stuff, looking for
deer, and that's probably whywe're finding a lot of bears on
ours.
Yeah, thanks everyone forjoining us for part two of Bear
Hunting with Heather Aldrich.
Join.
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