Petra, Maine Wildlife

You have to spend a lot of time in the woods to get pictures of a black bear because they are pretty good at avoiding people, which is why I like the wildlife cameras. He's right. Only one person has ever been killed by a black bear in Maine, going back before it was a state, and he had it in a cage at his gas station in the 1930s, and went into the cage with it to impress some customers, probably. Not only haven't they killed anyone in the wild but they probably haven't even attacked anyone, since a bear is certainly capable of killing anyone it attacks. When they don't see a clear avenue for escape, bears will sometimes do bluff charges, intended to scare away whoever might be invading its space, and these are sometimes misinterpreted as attacks. Moose do that sometimes too but I have frequently heard reports of people being mauled by moose. I don't know that they have killed people, except in traffic situations, but I know that they have seriously injured people in Maine. A quick search finds several news stories of people being mauled by moose. I stopped my car to take a picture of a young bull moose outside of Millinocket once, and it chased me off without a picture.

I do sometimes carry a gun when I am going to spend time in the woods, but usually I don't. I have only actually seen bear three times in my woods but my cameras have found that they've been watching me a few other times, probably knowing that I often leave apples. Each time, the bear was gone almost as quickly as I had seen it, long before I could have pointed a camera. On the other hand, I have seen moose several times, not only on my land but elsewhere in Maine.

One thing about moose is that they generally follow the same trails, walking the same paths day after day, rather than wandering the woods as bear often do, so when someone is walking along a moose trail and meets a moose, the moose isn't about to change his (or her) route to accommodate someone far smaller. So they will charge, even when it's a car, an ATV or a snowmobile. Honking the horn or shouting will be effective if you meet up with a bear, but it just tends to anger a moose. There are even stories about moose charging an oncoming railroad train. Okay, so they're not so bright.

As for hunting, you're right in a sense. The only reason that makes any sense for a black bear's fear of human beings is generations of being hunted. Surely, a bear recognizes its superior power but they have come to recognize people as representing danger. I'm not opposed to bear hunting although I don't want to participate in it myself, and do want to continue to provide a safe place for them, but the typical bear has a range of about fifty square miles, which far exceeds my hundred acres, and they are hunted on the land surrounding my property, although probably not so much as you go deeper into the forest, which is probably where "my bear" goes during hunting season, not because people aren't allowed to hunt there but because most hunters don't want to go deep into the woods since they would have to carry out whatever they might kill.

Nationwide, most bear attacks occur in large national or state parks where they have enjoyed generations of not being hunted, losing their fear of human beings.

 

Yes, I love it. Maybe next year, I'll clear a few more small clearings to provide better habitat, for it is the clearings and the new growth that provides food and forage for wildlife. Plus, I need a few more places where I can plant fruit trees. I can probably sell some of the wood for firewood, since I won't be cutting any of the finer trees, and that can pay our taxes on the property, which aren't very high. I also want to clear a few well-defined trails so that my wife will feel more comfortable walking with me there, and not feel confined to the camp. Growing up in San Francisco, she's not exactly a country girl.

You never know what you might find, and you can get the cameras for under $50, although you can pay up a thousand or more, depending on what you want. I began with a couple of very cheap ones, but now I'm buying the ones that cost over a hundred.

 

Great thread.

Chock full of real life.

 

THAT is too close for comfort. This is not the time of year for a grizzly encounter.

A neighbor used to put out scraps in the evening in front of a game came to see what he has on his property (may have been a hunting season thing.) He told me that one day he pulled the SD card to see what he had captured after putting out watermelon rind the night before. There was the pic of him setting out the goodies at 7PM, then there was the pic of a black bear at 7:15PM, having apparently waited in the woods for him to leave. He said he stopped leaving out food after that. (I know it's not the same. Black bears are about as dangerous as Yogi and Boo Boo.)

 

You gotta upload to You Tube or to one of the other supported websites (DailyMotion, Facebook, Liveleak, Vimeo, Metacafe) and then link it. This forum does not "host" videos.

You can upload screenshots.

 

I just came across a story of a 10 year old boy playing in his grandparents' back yard in Connecticut and being attacked by a black bear.

The kid was playing on a trampoline when the bear came out of the woods, grabbed him by the leg, and started to drag him away. Granddad is wheelchair-bound and threw stuff at the bear, which momentarily let the kid go but then grabbed his leg again. A neighbor also threw stuff at the bear, and they were able to free the child.

The story says the grandfather "was able to get the child inside before the bear returned, walked up a wheelchair ramp and looked at them through a screen door." The boy suffered a puncture wound to one thigh, bite marks on a foot and ankle and claw marks on his back. The bear was euthanized.

That is such highly unusual behaviour for a black bear. Most violent encounters with black bear involve surprise encounters, not aggression.

Link to search results of a dozen stories.