Tangent of Gorky's Bear Cave Thread

[John Y Cannuck]

Black bears don't usually hibernate in "Caves". Sure, it can happen, but the yogi bear idea of a cave, is just not factual. How many caves do you know of? There just are not enough for all the bears around.
Frequently, they will simply cuddle up to a fallen tree. Or in a hole under a big rock.
A fallen tree where I nearly stepped on one some years back on a nice bright, but very cold January day. I got growled at, and backed away, end of encounter.

 

[Grizzlypeg]

Eastern Manitoba and Western Ontario is Canadian shield and has lots of natural rock outcropping and caves. I've heard bears overwinter in these sort of "caves". They look just like the one I saw in a video where they tranquilized a bear sow and pulled her out of the opening and found she was with cubs.

 

[John Y Cannuck]

i hunt in the shield, I know what you mean by "Caves" but I just wanted these guys to understand that this is not a spelunking endeavor. Most of these "Caves" barely hold the animal. It's not a climb in with them size. It's a poke them from the entrance size.

 

[calgarychef1]

sleeping bear

Lots of speculation going on here.

My buddy crawled into a den and poked a bear with a stick until it woke up, it took about 15 minutes of prodding. He says when it came out it was very groggy and not much of an "adversary" They didn't kill it and it went back to sleep. Apparently this is very hard on bears as it uses up their energy supply when they wake up.


I've heard tales of Natives huntingbears at the den. They would plant the butt of heavy spear in a shallow hole and P***s off the bear so it would come charging out. The spear had a cross piece lashed onto it. The bear would run itself right onto the spear and at the same time the hunter would lift the spear. The bear would be lifted into the air by it's own momentum and slide down the spear until it hit the crosspiece.

Sounds like fun


The chef

 

[2fat2fly]

Problem #3 - becoming an adrenalin junky can lead to a short life span.

Ah yes, but it's better than dying of boredom.

 

[2fat2fly]

I've got to go thru my parrents photos. I have one that shows my dad at about 25 playing with a black bear. The farmer had a bear denned up in an old granery. The photo shows the bear just after it woke up, with the old man playing with him/her. Really cool picture.

 

[John Y Cannuck]

A friend of mine says he shot one denned up in the 1950's. He says it was in the hole left when a tree uprooted. He shot it with his 35 Rem. Reached down and grabbed an ear, got growled at, and shot it again.