Wildlife & Related

[Hummer]

I've had some serious fun tracking a variety of critters and had several bear encounters already this month . Two weeks ago I woke at 4:20 am when I heard a thump on the house. I shined a bright flashlight into the face of a big bear as he stood against the dining room window--only two feet away. At the time I didn't have the electric bear fence up because the snow was too deep, but the next day I did some shoveling, restrung the wires and got it connected. I think he's the same black boar that I've shown on this thread before but he's a lot bigger now.

Monday morning before daylight another bear visited. I didn't see him but the tracks told the story. At sun up I backtracked his prints in the snow. He had come down the driveway and ran into the electric fence and got bit in two places, then went around the cabin along the fence perimeter. My neighbor Charlie also saw him. He visited again Wednesday earlier in the night. From tracks in the snow I found that he'd gone to each of my neighbor's four front doors and around the cars. It is obvious the bears are like bloodhounds, following scents that people leave wherever they go. This time the bear came to our fence but avoided touching the wire. He circled the fence perimeter completely. Mrs. Hummer said, the Indians are circling....but it was comforting to know the fence was working to keep him out.

I followed his tracks up the mountain to where I thought he might have a den under some large boulders. It was snowing and the tracks petered out so I headed over the mountain to a lake a mile away. I found turkey and moose tracks, then some drag marks that soon revealed a Pine Marten had killed a rabbit and was hauling it home. I followed the drag marks a half mile over the mountain and back down into the valley where they ended at an apparent den in a boulder field. It was treacherous climbing down the steep timbered and rocky slope over the snow. I spotted a young bull moose in the willows below where he stood under a tree for shelter from the snow. I wouldn't have seen him if I hadn't been up the mountain. I went over to say hello but he wasn't in the mood to chat.

Last evening at 6:40, I glanced up from the computer to see a bear just outside walking around the fence. This was a bear I hadn't seen before, a young chocolate boar. I snapped a few photos and opened the door to watch and video any interaction with the fence. It was apparent that he knew the fence and was looking for ways to get over it. To my surprise he leaped to bounce off an aspen and vaulted over the polywire. A moment later he was 8 ft. from me in the doorway and looked up when I said, "you'd better go home". He promptly left the way he came in and a few seconds later I popped him in the butt with some rubber buckshot.

The rubber pellets and 12ga. noise is adverse conditioning to keep them at a distance. I don't relish a close encounter of the wrong kind and I certainly don't want to see these magnificent animals hurt. Charlie confirmed it's the same bear he saw Monday because it wore CPW ear tags. I hope he finds a cute girl bear and spends the summer foraging in the high mountains far, far away.


Epilogue: My task this afternoon is to add another hot wire to raise the fence from 36" to 42".