New Neighbors

[steelslaver]

We occasionally have a mountain line wander through town,, couple springs ago it was a moose. Have seen black bears from time to time a few miles from town. Now the fish and game reports game camera pictures of a grizzly wondering around just south of here. Nearest I have known them to be before was around 30 some miles to the west. Where does a big bear go??? Anywhere it wants. Don't really worry me much. Plenty of berries, cherries, wild plums, bugs, winter kill and what have you to keep them busy. More apt to get run over standing by the mail box than attacked by a bear.

One place I hunt I come across one big pile of purple poo filled with wild plum pits after the other. I swear every 100 yards there was another pile. Bear was seriously loading and unloading. Finally saw him and he must have heard me first. Big old boy, blacker than night, heading for the next ridge at good clip. Guy could go sit on that trail and get him a big fat bear in the fall.

 

[steelslaver]

Well, the new neighbor made a serious mistake. He was found with his 2nd dead cow and the Fish and Game put an end to him. He was a 450# boar and as he was quite a ways off the normal reservation for grizzlies and preying on domestic livestock he was done in. To bad really. I myself had hoped he wold stay out of trouble. While I would certainly not like to encounter a grizzly in a bad mood, I see them as a part of the picture of wild country. I have about the same odds in that kind of country of a tree falling on me, falling and getting busted up as serious injury in a bear attack. I don't walk on the edge of a cliff and when there are bears around I don't push through in heavy cover, watch for tracks, scat and scavenger birds etc.