I keep my place as a sanctuary as well. It's not that I'm against hunting, it's just that I like my critters.
When we get a good picture of a buck by our deck, we show it to friends that hunt and make them very jealous.
Grizzlies still attacking https://www.yahoo.com/gma/2-college-wrestlers-ambushed-gruesome-071204284.html
I had a doe drinking out of my bird bath this morning about 5:30AM. As I looked out by patio door, we stared at each other a bit before she took another drink and then ran off into the dark. It hasn't rained for about 6 weeks and is getting pretty dry.
I believe most black bear attacks occur in or near national or state parks, and I think this is because 1) people tend to feed the bears so the bears associate people with food; and 2) hunting hasn't been allowed for multiple bear generations so there are bears that have less fear of people. Otherwise, there's no reason why a 500-pound bear would worry about a fat old guy walking through the woods. As fewer people hunt, we might see more bear aggression. Of course, a really hungry bear or one who still needs to fatten up for the winter might take whatever opportunity presents itself, particularly kids, whose actions or voices might suggest prey.
Two of my brothers who live near where I grew up have deer that regularly come into their yards because they throw corn down. Sometimes they'll even come to the door or look in the windows. But, although one of them hunts deer regularly, neither of them hunts the ones who come into their yards. They go to the woods for that.
I moved into a neighborhood where the locals run dogs through the entire area (although it's really quelled in the past 10 years or so.) I did not want to be the guy who came from "up north" and shrunk the property they had hunted on since they were kids, so I told them: "When you are going to hunt, you need to let me know you are on my property. I will be out there with a gun, and you will be out there with a gun. I can't take that risk on my own land. That is my only condition." So I'm sitting inside one day and hear BOOM! BOOM! right outside my house!!! I go onto the deck and just in the woods and down a hollow I can here them talking over a kill! No one said one damned thing to me. So I pulled the one guy aside and said "Get the word out. No more hunting on my property. I tried to be nice." They respected it. But it still makes me angry. Just act like damned adults. So to bring this back to Maine...I cannot recall if @Ken Anderson said he had issues with hunters on his property or not. I'm kinda thinking he had trespassers, but I don't recall hunters specifically.
Yes, we had that discussion in another thread. The link will bring you to my reply, one that would serve as a reply to this post as well.
This is about ten years old, but I just picked up the SD card yesterday. It was taken by a camera I had misplaced in the woods near our camp. This was only a five-minute walk from our camp in the woods, but I sometimes forget where I had placed my cameras. I don't think it's a fight; I think it's two siblings playing. Later... Actually, I don't know how old this photo is. Although I always set the dates on my cameras when I put them out, this date is obviously wrong because these bears would be sleeping n February, plus the ferns would have died out long before then.
Once (if) we can get the forum working again, I'll replace all of the bad images in this thread. When I first started the forum, I was linking images from another domain that I had, but which I let expire accidentally.