Lonesome For Bears

10/28/2024

Modern hunters don’t seem to know how to track. They lose animals after they wound them and go on the internet or find a dog. Tracking the old fashion way is key to never losing an animal. The first problem with learning to track is recognizing when you don’t know how to do it. Being able to see deer tracks in the road is not it. You need to be able to see subtle trails in the bush, hard scrabble ground. Blood spots are the only thing most hunters can see.
However, if you knew you could see it, you can see subtle trails in any substrate by learning new search images of what things look like when they’ve been disturbed. Can you you catch the pale green shade of a turned over leaf? A three way broken stick or a tangled group of leaves on a bush where an animal brushes by.

To teach yourself how to trail go out and lay a marker flat on the ground. Leave. Good first print and walk into the field or forest about fifty feet. Lay another marker on the ground that can only be scene from standing over it. Then, circle back to your starting point and follow your trail. Study each subtle thing that shows your passage. Two things will be readily apparent right away; one that it is not easy and two that you can learn a lot from doing this. If you practice this enough you’ll never lose an animal and hunters will start calling you for help.

05/07/2024

When you’re trailing bears it’s fun to see what they stop and taste. This bear demolished the top of an ant hill and left a track in the debris. The most interesting thing to me was the little turned over green leaf …. Look closely. It’s very fresh. The bear was too far ahead.

04/01/2024

Big News; my new book is available for pre-orders on Amazon in paperback and kindle.

https://a.co/d/53P9Lm2

…. and for those of you who have read Lonesome for Bears; yes there are more bear stories in it.

08/02/2023

It’s that time again!

To all bears;

How to get through hunting season.

(Tomorrow, August 1, 2022 fall bear season starts in Washington State)

So why do humans want to kill your all of a sudden? Humans are having a hard time right now and I believe they feel killing an animal like you, who is perceived as powerful, will somehow make them feel better. Some of them like to eat bear.

Anyway, be human aware. Remember, trusting a human means a dead bear.

The smells you should watch for are the diesel of trucks, the smell of guns, which is sort of a cold metal smell with light oil, ci**rs, insect repellents, camp fires, beer and whiskey, and whatever you do, don’t eat any donuts.

Be careful where you get your berries and stay away from roads. Leaving tracks on dusty roads is risky, but remember that most hunters can only see clear tracks. If you keep to the brush and grass you should be able to move freely.

Do your main meal at night. Most hunters don’t shoot after dark. During the day hanging out in deep canyons with lots of brush is safest, but don’t let a dog chase you out. If they can’t walk into you, or see you, they can’t shoot. Being invisible during the day is key.

They will play tricks on you if they can, by driving fast on roads hoping to catch sight of you, leaving super sweet food laying around and trying to corner you.

Just keep in mind that their are old bears, and bold bears, but no old, bold bears. The guns they carry have long sights and they have all kinds of new electronic gadgets like night vision, trail cameras, drones and GPS to name a few.

Use your ears and nose. If you hear a dog barking, a whine of a drone or the sound of one of those noisy ATV’s or side by sides, get to your happy place in a thicket and don’t move!

Don’t be insulted by this . . . most humans don’t know you, especially those that want to make you a rug. They don’t understand your character; how funny and kick backed you are, or how gentle and peaceful you like your world.

I hope to see you alive and well next spring, planting seeds and plowing up soil and doing your bear thing of taking care of the earth.

07/21/2023

All over Facebook feeds are these hair raising accounts of being stalked by, charged by or followed by bears and other large predators. Lots of them go “viral” and people reinforce their limited understanding of wildlife into fear and an excuse to kill. No one seems to report incredibly peaceful and wonderful encounters. Well, here’s one:

Yesterday me and a friend rode our bikes to a remote spot where there is a patch of huckleberries. The berries were all missing off the bushes so we pushed our way down the slope looking for human tracks. Instead, we found multiple bear trails and signs of bears feeding on the berries. We made our way back up to the bikes and decided to sit and have coffee and listen. Jane faced one way, and I the other. In about twenty minutes I saw a little bear pop up it’s head, and an ear wiggle. I alerted Jane and we watched as the little bear made a big show of eating and being unconcerned by our presence so he/she could meander our direction and satisfy his/her curiosity. We throughly enjoyed the mutual watching of bear of humans and humans of bear. We didn’t move and sat relaxed and sipping coffee. The bear eventually disappeared by moving quietly up a downed log and slipping away. What a gift!

This is a photo of where it occurred but I never thought to take a photo while the bear was there. I used my apple pen and memory to fill in the bear where we saw it.

I wish people could be as enthusiastic about mellow encounters between species as they are about fear and sensations.

06/06/2023

To all bears;

I want to tell you about trail cameras … I know in spring most of the tender green plants to eat are in towns and you are used to sneaking in and filling up, but there is this new thing. Yes … humans have hidden cameras everywhere now and they are seeing you go over the fence, play in their pool, swing in their hammocks and eat their gardens and lawns. Sadly, they are still freaked out about you being around and think that because they see more of your usual, every year activities that your population has exploded. They don’t understand about your natural birth control and often think they’ve seen four bears instead of just you on your usual rounds. So, be careful my friends the bears, don’t let them get close to you as some of them are dangerous. You’re not safe up a tree anymore, so I suggest hitting the trail during daytime hours and look for those little eyes that flash hidden in trees, doorways and bushes. Humans aren’t afraid of what they don’t see. Remember, they are all visually oriented. Be sneaky and stay safe.
Signed,
The humans that like you.

11/26/2022

The amount of just plain wrong information about animals on the internet is enough to bowl you over. This photo, which has obviously been cut and pasted too many times, appeared on my Facebook feed with some made up story about a baby bear asking a fisherman for a fish and then taking it to its mother. In reality, this is a photo of Charlie Russell teaching one of his hand raised orphan grizzly bear cubs in Kamchatka how to fish. He would catch the fish and let it go in the shallows for the cub to catch. It’s a scene from the movie The Edge of Eden.

https://youtu.be/xjv1l5XEykI

The amount of harm disinformation does on the internet is staggering.

Enjoy winter.

08/20/2022

https://youtu.be/dLU3CMzMfC8

This little film is amazing. Watch how these workers go from scaring bears away with noise, rubber bullets and other deterrents to understanding bear body language and beginning to speak it themselves. Watch to the very end for some wise advice.

07/31/2022

To all bears;

How to get through hunting season.

(Tomorrow, August 1, 2022 fall bear season starts in Washington State)

So why do humans want to kill your all of a sudden? Humans are having a hard time right now and I believe they feel killing an animal like you, who is perceived as powerful, will somehow make them feel better. Some of them like to eat bear.

Anyway, be human aware. Remember, trusting a human means a dead bear.

The smells you should watch for are the diesel of trucks, the smell of guns, which is sort of a cold metal smell with light oil, ci**rs, insect repellents, camp fires, beer and whiskey, and whatever you do, don’t eat any donuts.

Be careful where you get your berries and stay away from roads. Leaving tracks on dusty roads is risky, but remember that most hunters can only see clear tracks. If you keep to the brush and grass you should be able to move freely.

Do your main meal at night. Most hunters don’t shoot after dark. During the day hanging out in deep canyons with lots of brush is safest, but don’t let a dog chase you out. If they can’t walk into you, or see you, they can’t shoot. Being invisible during the day is key.

They will play tricks on you if they can, by driving fast on roads hoping to catch sight of you, leaving super sweet food laying around and trying to corner you.

Just keep in mind that their are old bears, and bold bears, but no old, bold bears. The guns they carry have long sights and they have all kinds of new electronic gadgets like night vision, trail cameras, drones and GPS to name a few.

Use your ears and nose. If you hear a dog barking, a whine of a drone or the sound of one of those noisy ATV’s or side by sides, get to your happy place in a thicket and don’t move!

Don’t be insulted by this . . . most humans don’t know you, especially those that want to make you a rug. They don’t understand your character; how funny and kick backed you are, or how gentle and peaceful you like your world.

I hope to see you alive and well next spring, planting seeds and plowing up soil and doing your bear thing of taking care of the earth.