Kinda like moose, but darker.

Lots of Hogs in N. Ga used to hunt Cooper River and Cohutta quit a bit. Hogs will tend to smell a bit and will let you know if your to close. Just a thought.

This thread is the first time that I have heard or read that rattlesnakes emit an odor like cucumbers. I have always heard that copperheads emit such an odor, but not other snakes.
I have never encountered either, so I'll have to take other peoples word for it. I know that I'll be on the alert if I ever smell that in the woods.

Myron

What does a black bear smell like?

They have a extremely strong smell of fear & urine..



Oh... Wait,, maybe that wasn't them I would be smelling..... :-)

Black bears smell quite well as you can see by the length of their nose in the epic above. That holds a lot of olfactory nerves.

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Front sight and squeeze

getting close to the rut for whitetail, you sure it wasnt a buck that had just laid a scrape or horned some bushes and left some love stink around. they grunt, wheeze and blow, everything you mentioned and have some pretty danged stout musk

I know this thread is 3 years old and I am a new poster, but I am ressurecting this. Background on me is prior Marine Corps, prior deputy sheriff, and firefighter in Georgia now.

So my wife and I just got back from a hike up Rabun Bald and had the exact experience the original.poster had. Almost at the top, somethng to the left made a dramatic movement real fast and made a grunt/snort/growl noise. My wife screamed and I quickly drew my Sig .357. We slowly backed down the trail and quickly made it to the bottom. Prior to the encounter, we smelled what I would describe as a dirty men's bathroom with urinals. On the way down we spotted several piles of orange looking **** which was definitely black bear poop. I found this post searching for what black bear urine smells like.

If I hadn't seen the poop and identified it online, I would have wondered if it was a mountain lion or something. Interesting we both had the same encounter three years apart, same time of year.

My only olfactory experience with a black bear was about 45 years ago when I shot one in West Virginia. It was pretty gamey. That was one shot I'm sorry I took. I wouldn't shoot a black bear again.

Everyone is assuming the smell and noise go together which may not be true. Or, a bear may have a carcass stashed.

I've handled a lot of wild hogs in my time as a guide and a few "tranked" bears (disclaimer: My bears were "urban" trash bears for the most part) and I would say they smelled pretty similar==kinda a "wet dog" smell or an old trash dumpster smell. It varied somewhat.

I was once at a gas station where a Game and Fish truck was getting gas. They had a black bear in a trap cage to be released somewhere away from people. I can assure you that that bear STANK bad! The wardens told me that they all stink like that.
Scott

I agree that the urine smell could very well be unrelated. I actually noticed two separate places where metal piping, the kind you might see inside a storm drain, crossed the path. Possibly somehow the smell was related to that? I also noticed a good bit of water was on the trail at places as a result of rainfall lately. It was a very damp trail at times. With all of the tree cover, the smell could be from the water. But I was stopped in my tracks at how strong it was just prior to our encounter.

Where did you access the trail to Rabun Bald? We drove into North Carolina from the road going from Dillard, GA to Highlands, NC and took a side road near a real estate office. I will never do that hike again when the leaves are still on the trees. It is a bad place to get hurt and need rescuing.

Do you live in Rabun county?

I am glad that you clarified that statement. At first I thought that I heard banjos playing.

Attached Images

animals_bear_warning.jpg (41.4 KB, 17 views)

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James Redfield
LM #497

If they've recently eaten a Greenpeace groupie they smell like granola and tofu.

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NULLI SECUNDUS

I'll go along with Bigfoot.

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Don

About 50 years ago while deer hunting I came across a black bear in Northern California and let me tell he stunk. He kind of smelled like an elk hunter that had not bathed in a couple of weeks only worse. I have been pretty close to other bears and they did not stink like that one did. I guess it was a case of bad bear hygiene.

Twelve years ago... in the low-mountains on the San Juan's... I rode up 'bout 800 yards from a bear feedin' on a carcus. Dam horse went crazy... so much so... the bear looked up. But he didn't stop his feedin'. Downwind... I could smell it from my perch.

Got back to camp... the Michigan boys says they can smell 'em from way, way far off... iff'n they been baited with old beavers.

What does a black bear smell like?

If it was the one that tore down the grocery cache in camp....

Sardines, that what it smelled like.......A case of sardines


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"IN GOD WE TRUST"

I've been close to many Black Bears and the only time I ever noticed a bad odor from them is when they come out of the water, such as this one who just went for a swim. Many of the waterholes they bath in are stagnant and smell similar to sewer water. More often than not, Black Bears will run off before you get a chance to see or hear them... there is always that exception though.

I can tell you what one Black Bear smelled like, Limburger cheese, sardines, and rancid grease.

She had been hanging out on my porch, and feasting at the dumpster at a State Park in the Ouachita Mountains of western Arkansas just making a bit of a nuisance of herself. Called the Game & Fish guys and they brought a trap up. Watched her decided between that juicy dumpster and the trap baited with a variety of morsels for several nights, she always chose the dumpster until I put the Limburger cheese in the trap. Bingo!

Helped the G&F guys work her up, and as we weighed , measured ,and tagged her the smell would gag a maggot. Glad I had a jar of Vicks for DBs in the truck.

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LEX ET ORDO

I have lived in that area-in the mountains- I have been up that trail, but decades ago, and there have always been stories about the "Goat Man" etc., around the Georgia Mountains (NE). The problem I have-and maybe I'm just ignorant-is having the same proximity, same experience, 3 years apart. Is that typical bear/hog behavior? Do they stay in one place that long? Few things smell as bad as a really nasty human being. I would suggest that the gentleman who is a fireman in that area talk to some local LEO's or forestry folks to see if there is an existing yarn about someone/thing on Rabun Bald. Given that these encounters were 3 years apart, the area needs to be swept, at the very least. Folks are going up and down that trail with their Women Folks, as I did, and Y'all, all of the time. Just my 2 cents.

I was up there that day.
Blessings

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TEXAS, by GOD

The male of the bear clan seems to stink worse.

But like a good hunting dog they usually smell with the wind in their face.

My bear encounter, all I smelled was old man's poop !