Muskoka Outdoors

Over halfway through 2010 and one could argue that bears are trying to destroy their teddy bear image through various bear attacks and snarling close encounters.

For or against, these occurrences have many people talking about the cancellation of Ontario’s spring bear hunt. A lost hunting opportunity that many hunters felt was politically motivated. It was a management tool that developed a healthy fear of man in bears and helped to minimize encounters like those shared in this post. It did NOT mean the end of Ontario’s bears. Nobody wanted that!

Black Bear Photo: HBarrison from Wikipedia

Those against a bear hunt are being ‘treated’ with more bear sightings, bear attacks, property damage  and other close encounters.

Anecdotally, through sources close to Muskoka Outdoors, some Huntsville residents have been having some close encounters.

One man was working outside his house when he came face to face with a bear. After repeated attempts to scare the  bear off, the man went back inside his house, with the bear following, to get his firearm. When the man exited his house with gun in hand – the bear bolted away.

In a second, different encounter, one woman returned back into her kitchen to find a bear in her kitchen. It had come in through a screen door.

Then, there was this past spring.  In less than one month, three separate aggressive bear encounters have been reported in the area of Orillia, ON. One of the attacks was nearly fatal, while the other two were ‘charges’ and acts of aggression.

Listed below are accounts of the encounters from various sources:

1. Mauling victim gives chilling account of bear attack

2. ATV rider charged by black bear

3. Woman on bike chased by black bear near Orillia, ON

Recently, there have been other bear attacks in Canada and internationally:

1. Canadian woman recounts bear attack (Montana)

2. Bear killed after biting man’s arm (Colorado)

3. Port Alberni bear attack sends two to hospital (BC)

4. Yellowstone Bear Attack KILLS Camper, Injures Two

It’s getting more difficult to buy into the ‘rarity’ of hostile bear encounters and attacks. Clean BBQ grills, bear ‘proof’ garbage containers and call lines might fool humans into a sense of safety, but ‘Smokey’ the bear’s identity is lost in the reality of the Canadian rural setting.

Live trapping bears might make sense – until they end up in your back yard or mine. If we are going continue with this tool – I hope those involved are getting DNA samples of the bears that are re-released to make sure they are not repeat offenders. It will also give human victims a means to trace who released a potential risk to back to the wild.

At some point, increasing hunting opportunities, in conjunction with a science-based management plan, will need to be considered to start minimizing risks to humans. It could be a tough pill to swallow for anti-hunting groups.

It is more heart breaking for me to see a human become a causality of the ‘business-end’ of a bear.

West of Spiers’ pond is a ridge of beech trees. They are on the east side of the pond and they are right in the middle of one of our deer runs. The plan was for me to walk with ‘Bella’ (ye old trusty hound) north around the pond and along the ridge. The goal was to push deer off the ridge and along the pond to strategic points on the north and west sections of the pond.

After a half hour wait in solitude (except for an anxious hunting dog), I started the trek north. Bella, ranged on all sides of me as I walked. Things were looking good.

That was until I reached a stand of Beech trees. Then, things got interesting.

As I pushed through some evergreens and walked into an opening of beech trees I got that someone’s watching me feeling. The dog felt it too because she stopped suddenly and began growling. I pulled my gun up a little closer to my shoulder (though not in a firing position) and waited. That’s when I heard some ‘crashing’ through some evergreens ahead of us. The dog stopped growling and began sniffing the ground again. I eased up on my gun and began to look curiously at the beech trees in front of me.

It was obvious that a bear had just been up it as there were fresh claw marks going up to the top of the tree. I had seen those before in other trees in our hunting area. What I had not seen before were all the leaves around the base of the trees had been pushed away into a ring that surrounded it. Picture a large donut on the ground with this beech tree coming out of the hole in the center. There were other beech trees in the area with the same pile of leaves. Bear tracks were clearly visible in the leaf-free dirt.

Nervously, I began to walk again as I did not want to let the guys down who were waiting across the pond. About 25 yards later, I came across another grouping of beech trees with the same leafy formations. A splash of black grabbed my attention, to my right, as I snapped my gun up to my shoulder. My heartbeat gave away my position.

It was nothing. Just bear shadows.

I didn’t have a tag for those.

This time the dog walked over tight behind me and stood there panting. It was like she had enough of this.

So, I pulled my hunter’s prerogative card and cut west and low to the pond. I got no arguments from Bella. She was already ranging between the swamp grass and the pond’s evergreens.

Over dinner, I explained to the guys what I had seen – leaving out the part about my slight course change. After supper, I stepped outside to visit the outhouse and Bella followed. She had to do her thing. Upon returning to the cabin deck, I reached down to scratch an itch on my ankle and I pulled off a beech nut from my sock.

I threw it out into the darkness. Seconds later, I heard some branches breaking. Bella and I looked at each other and walked back into the light and warmth waiting just behind the cabin door.

The glow of the woodstove kept the bear shadows outside.

*If you have read this before that’s because I have been occasionally reposting some of my favorite posts from when my blog was just starting out. This way, some of my, buried, posts may get read by my newer visitors.

This could be one more reason not to smoke or, at least, consider bringing back a spring bear hunt. The Globe and Mail reports that it took 72 staples to repair the damage to a Northern Ontario resident’s leg on Wednesday night. The article states that,

Ms. Harvey’s Rottweiler woke her up at about 1:45 a.m. wanting to go outside. She took him out to the driveway of her family’s Sudbury area home and decided to have a cigarette.

“Ranger took off to the other side of the truck,” she said. “I walked over to the back of the truck. That’s when [the bear] got me.” Entire Article Here

I predict there will be more and more of these incidences in the days and months to come as an exploding bear population in northern towns and villages causes the bears to become more bolder and brazen in their quest for food.

These aren’t the kind of bears found in kids cartoons and PETA newsletters. They are the real deal and it is those of us in rural settings that have to deal with reality of living with the black beasts.

What can you do if you run into a bear in Muskoka? Go ahead an call the Ontario MNR’s Automated phone line: 1-866-514-BEAR (2327)

I am not sure how the automated line would have helped Ms. Harvey – yet there it is. You could read through Ontario’s Bearwise Website for other lifesaving tips like:

• clean your BBQ grill after every use (because this is SO easy to do)
• put meat scraps in your freezer until garbage day (because filling your freezer with garbage is a good health standard)
• buy an expensive bear proof bin (true they seem to be effective – but a slight chunk of change more than a shotgun slug)
• keep your yard free of things that attract bears (what do we do about infants, poodles and midnight smokers?)

I hope you can sense my sarcasm. I just think that increased opportunities to hunt bears in Northern Ontario will be more effective and cost effective than the measures I listed above.

Yet, it is just my opinion and you are also entitled to yours.

Ever left your game cam wondering if you left it in the right spot? The people that set-up these camera shots should be teaching courses on game cam set-ups. These photos are submissions from OFAH’s Game Cam Photo Contest. If you have not already submitted photos for this cool contest, follow this link to do so.

Now to the Top 3 Photo Reasons Your Trail Cam Is In The Right Spot:

#3 (Below)

#2 (Below)

#1 Reason (Below)

You can vote for for these photos (and my submission) by following this link. For a good article on setting up your game cam, follow this link.

There is a particular edition of Ontario Out of Doors Magazine publishes that I anticipate the most each year. It is usually the September edition because they publish the Annual Ontario Hunting Forecast for the current and upcoming hunting year. It is very in-depth and generally covers all Ontario WMU’s.

To read the 2008 Ontario Hunting Forecast from Ontario Out of Doors -CLICK HERE-

To summarize their ‘intel’ on the hunting WMU 49 (the wildlife management Unit where huntsville is), this is what they are saying (click on the photo for a large view):

If you are looking for an excellent hunting and fishing magazine that covers topics and issues that relate to hunting and fishing in Ontario, consider this publication.

Here is an interesting story about some bear poachers who were caught by the Ontario MNR in an unusual way. The Chronicle Journal reports that,

Two Northwestern Ontario men have been fined a total of $2,300 for killing a black bear during the closed season and leaving it to rot after investigators found pictures of people posing with the spoils on the Internet. Entire Chronicle Journal Article Here

It’s nice to see poachers get caught. If you need to report possible poaching situations please call: 1-877-TIPS-MNR (847-7667).

*The TIPS-MNR reporting line is not an emergency response telephone number.   If you are calling to report public safety matters please call 911 or the police.