Bears in Texas

[Quark]

Oh come guys you don't know the thrill of a bear breaking into your house when you are home especially if it's a Grizz and it's in the middle of the night.

Most people keep a bedside 12 gauge slug gun for two-legged home invaders but here in Montana out in the country you keep a bedside 12 gauge slug gun for four-legged home invading bears.

 

[SoulSeeker]

We had a bait station setup in Alaska and got a blackie. We put in old fish, old grease from restaurants, and anything else rotten plus a few twinkies. Skinned and dressed they look like a skinned man. Tasty, very tasty. Was able to get ahold of some seal too. Moose stories I'll share later

 

[Quark]

We had a bait station setup in Alaska and got a blackie. We put in old fish, old grease from restaurants, and anything else rotten plus a few twinkies. Skinned and dressed they look like a skinned man. Tasty, very tasty. Was able to get ahold of some seal too. Moose stories I'll share later

Bear certainly does look like a skinned human when it's hanging skinned. And some of the best tastings meat.

 

[SoulSeeker]

My aunt could make bear pizza that would make your tongue beat your gums to death trying to get at it

 

[Pearl]

I have enough crap to deal with here!! Y'all keep them bears!!

 

[Tim Horton]

Tirediron bear story...

One of my grizzly encounters was similar to that.. In that I come around the corner of the barn on the tractor and the sow with cubs was at the other barn corner on the field side.. Luckily they ran..

The door to the porch only had a 6" square window, so I couldn't see the black bear just on the other side of the door.. When I opened the door we were dangerously too close nose to nose.. It ran off the porch and to the other side of the driveway.. It stopped, stood a few seconds and started to walk back across the driveway.. Luckily I had my 12 ga in hand and ...took care of business... as yelling didn't work.. This all in a distance of 25-30 feet.. Turns out it had a tag in each ear, likely meaning it was a 2 time relocated animal from town.. Later animal control would take live trapped town bears to the land fill and RCMP would ..take care of business.. Town typically had to deal with 75-100 bear issues a season..

 

[Tim Horton]

Bear trivia...
In the far north we knew a young family that the wife, mother was a tattoo artist and worked with a local taxidermist.. She encouraged many to save bear paws that she would skin out and the local university medical school would use them to teach orthopedic surgery...

 

[Ekatarina]

Leaving a radio tuned loud to a *talk show* can make it sound like someone is home and may persuade bears to leave the area. It’s the human voice that does the trick; music doesn’t seem to have any effect I heard (maybe loud heavy metal music )

If you’ll be gone for an extended period of time, you can put the radio on.
Effective for chicken coops as well.


Garbage bin enclosure and put it at the road the day of the garbage truck to pick up
clean the inside the bin

 

[Quark]

Leaving a radio tuned loud to a *talk show* can make it sound like someone is home and may persuade bears to leave the area. It’s the human voice that does the trick; music doesn’t seem to have any effect I heard (maybe loud heavy metal music )

If you’ll be gone for an extended period of time, you can put the radio on.
Effective for chicken coops as well.


Garbage bin enclosure and put it at the road the day of the garbage truck to pick up
clean the inside the bin

I doubt it would make a whole lot of difference around here. Bears aren't afraid of much of anything especially the Griz.

 

[Ekatarina]

I love all animals ...so far I never had major problem with them
wildlife, farm or pets

Maybe I always had luck so far in my life

Did you know that any animals can smell your fear

 

[SoulSeeker]

My grandpa said we were sidewalk indians, didn't know bear tracks from train tracks

 

[Tim Horton]

Sidewalk Indians, bear tracks, train tracks... Bwahahahhahahaha.....
Sounds like our grandpas were much the same in many ways...

I love all animals.. So far no trouble..
I am more a ..live and let live.. kind of guy than many may suspect.. However I never tolerated any predator too near my family or livestock.. I maintained a very obvious and rigid ..line in the sand.. boundary as it were..

 

[Ekatarina]

I tolerate more animals than 2 leggers LOL

But when trouble around with furry friends ...
I just put some bullet take my gun ...and shoot in the air ...
and they leave

 

[Tim Horton]

At a time I bought sweet corn from a guy who kept a radio tuned to a 24 hour talk show station in his sweet corn patch.. Saying it was to keep racoons out.. As I recall him saying it only worked the first summer he used it..

 

[Tirediron]

Ok small bear story, 3 years ago I came back home from the west, and it looked like the bee hives were messed up, call the bee guy, he came and straighten things, but lost a lot of hives, he put up a fairly decent electric fence, I was away for a few days, when I got home, I noticed a broke branch on my apple tree, and lots of apples missing, the bear prolly a small orphan cub had climbed the tree and ate a bunch
of apples, and prolly went out too far on the branch and got dumped. never saw him , and he prolly got a good zapped from the fence, fell out of the apple tree, and decided to shop elsewhere

 

[Quark]

I tolerate more animals than 2 leggers LOL

But when trouble around with furry friends ...
I just put some bullet take my gun ...and shoot in the air ...
and they leave

You do realize that what goes up comes down. Where do you think that bullet goes? Once you fire that bullet you own whatever that bullet hits. That bullet had to hit something when the bullet came down.

If you absolutely have to do that at least fire into the ground that might be safer unless you hit a gas line or electric line.

 

[shanrose]

So I'm always saying that I'm glad we don't have bears in my area! Plenty of poisonous things, mountain lions, bobcats, and hogs! A friend who lives less than a couple of miles from me said she saw a black bear yesterday evening in her back pasture!! Last summer in Arlington (city between Dallas and Ft. Worth) there were several confirmed black bear sightings. So this evening her son is coming over to set up a couple of game cameras and look for tracks and signs!! Black bears, why not!!

A family member saw what they thought was a bag of trash that they didn't remember putting there. Lo and behold it was a black bear with cubs! She was shocked at how quickly the cubs and mama bear climbed the 80 foot tree. Then papa bear showed up and broke open their thick plastic container of chicken feed. The yelled, banged pots, but that bear stayed put and ate the feed.

Be careful - a woman in CA was just killed by a bear that broke into her home.

 

[shanrose]

There is thousands of wooded acres behind my friend's place! She has word out to some others in the area. There is a 200 acre ranch across from me and a 1500 acre place next to them! They both have game cameras out. I'm going to talk to them! There is a lot of building going on out this way, if there are bears I imagine they are getting pushed out of their territory!

Hubby put up a trail cam and it scared me to see the amount of wildlife that came to eat off my persimmon tree! Foxes, deer, possum, a huge snake, and a gang of coyotes. It made me a little afraid to walk outside.

 

[shanrose]

The game cams will tell the story. Do you know anyone with a bear costume? You could really have some fun with this.

They might get shot!

You're disallowed to shoot bears where we live, which scares me.

 

[shanrose]

I occasionally see large cat tracks, only at one place i go. In fact i need to go down that creek in the next couple of weeks. That creek is dangerous without big cats. I'm super careful when i go there.

I haven't seen bear sign anywhere around but I hear about other people seeing them occasionally. Heard someone killed a gator 30miles down river recently. I'll pass on bears and gators...

Are you in Florida? I'm considering moving from our place to Florida for the warm weather.

 

[shanrose]

Oh bother.... There are bears around here, but not this close in to my area.. Several places, actually, most places I've lived other than this place have been prime bear habitat.. About the only predator I haven't been around is gators..

BE SURE.. To ..bear proof.. your property.. Take in bird feeders, pet food, close barn doors, and all other outbuildings securely.. Motion lights on buildings and around fruit trees, garden, etc..

If you aren't sure you have bears, and NEED to be sure what is about.. Set a trail cam as far away from your buildings etc as possible.. Bait the trail cam with a small bird seed feeder about 6' off the ground, also put out a small chunk of beef suit 6' high, and 1, only one hand full of bird seed on the ground under the birdfeeder.. This set up will attract a bear, but somewhat minimize non target animals for the camera.. Also set all this up where you can look it over with binoculars periodically as it is in place.. You will definitely know it has been visited by a bear when you see it all tore to smithereens rather than raccoon or other animals...

Most places I lived with bears, the standard management system for nuisance animals was the 3-S control method.. That is shoot, shovel, silence...
I wish you luck as I wouldn't wish bears on anyone..

Is shoot, shovel, silence mean you tell no one? We're disallowed to shoot bears but what the heck are you supposed to do when they're a nuisance and scare you to death?

 

[shanrose]

Ekatarina... Be VERY, VERY careful.. The North American north east has a hybrid of wolf and coyote, the coywolf that is a VERY dangerous predator.. At least one person confirmed killed by the hybrid.. At least there aren't grizzly until you get to the north west.. Twice I have been the width of the big barn from a grizzly, luckily once on the no cab tractor, but once on foot and empty handed... At least both black bear and cougar consider wild hog a food source..
== ==
As the cougar goes, there can be a black coated variation occasionally.. What is known as the ..Florida Panther.. is an obvious cougar variation to the trained eye.. Unfortunately I don't have a ..trained eye.. for that.. There is a jaguar variation in Mexico that seems to have expanded its range quite a ways north over a number of years now.. Not sure how this cat relates to any South American panther or cougar.. The only cougar I was forced to ..deal with.. in the far north was too much over 6'6" nose to tail to be comfortable remembering the encounter.. When it roared both I and the dog wet a little...

Also like said.. I'd rather deal with most anything rather than a cow moose... Enough said..

There are so many things out there you don't see.. Ain't that the truth..
Hence the saying.. The farther north you go the more things that can eat your horse and you.. This according to my Grandpa Gilbert..

Wildlife is going into neighborhoods - a coyote attacked a woman in a neighborhood. I'm afraid of coyotes - we have a lot of them coming to eat off our persimmon tree.

 

[shanrose]

We have a lot of bears around us here. Mostly black bears but I did see one grizzly down by the pump house a few years ago. Occasionally we'll see a bear in our back yard and around the chicken coop. They've never caused us any problems and we like seeing then around. They like swimming in our water tanks too. We also have mountain lions, wolves, coyotes, fox, bobcat, badgers, etc. There's a red fox that likes coming up on the porch to eat some dog food. During winter we see fox and coyote tracks on the rear deck and around the chicken run. Never had a problem. All these years and we only lost one newborn calf to coyotes. It was a hard winter, they need to make a living too.

How do you get rid of the coyote? We have a lot of them.

 

[shanrose]

more "texas north" bear stories.
One evening, getting into fall, I was gathering firewood, up on the ridge west of my buildings 'bout a 1/4 mile I had a small tractor (jacobsen G4x4 +) and my forwarder trailer I found a bunch of deadstandin/ fresh fallen 4-7" ish buck a bunch to length and started to load the trailer, mostly done and getting dark, I feel eye on me, can't smell anything, so I keep loading, still eyes. I decide to slip a medium ax in my belt, thinking buck deer or something. finish loading start down the trail , its kind of windy , Come around a corner and start to drop down, rounding a corner , I can see something on the trail about 100 ft ahead, but the lights haven't got there yet, the shape moves off into the bush on my left, and it is moving fairly quick now a bit of twigg snapping etc. light finally hit where the shape was,steaming bear scat on the very middle of the trail, never even though of a bear, but he wasn't surprized and thats when they are dangerous, or if you have bear bells, that seems to irritate them . I went back to the yard, close the gate and went back to the house, the wood got to stay on the trailer..

You "felt" eyes on you? I wonder how that works - is it intuition? I hope I feel eyes on me if ever in a situation with a wild animal.

 

[Mountain trapper]

How do you get rid of the coyote? We have a lot of them.

I don't. They do far more good than harm. I do trap a lot of coyotes in winter around the area, but seldom do I trap any on our property. Other than losing one calf, I've never had a problem with coyotes.

 

[Peanut]

Are you in Florida? I'm considering moving from our place to Florida for the warm weather.

Nope, gators have been caught as far north as the tn valley, huntsville area. They live just about anywhere in the coastal plain, from tx to n. carolina. They are rare where i live but they are caught sometimes.

 

[Tirediron]

You "felt" eyes on you? I wonder how that works - is it intuition? I hope I feel eyes on me if ever in a situation with a wild animal.

I don't know how to explain it, I only know it works, I am a fairly feral human though, it is the same as if you want to observe a deer or other prey animal , never focus directly on them, or they will spook and take off, the more socialized ones might not, but they don't live long either.

 

[joel]

We have had Black Bears in the last year, I did not see them.
We do not have the wild hog problem, for some reason, Thank God.

 

[Tirediron]

alberta bear country warning signs copy that into your search engine. I have lived in Bear country all of my life, actual wild land bear sightings are fairly rare. park bears are different

 

[shanrose]

I don't. They do far more good than harm. I do trap a lot of coyotes in winter around the area, but seldom do I trap any on our property. Other than losing one calf, I've never had a problem with coyotes.

I read where they attacked a woman walking in her neighborhood. Another tried to drag a child out of his driveway. So I'm very wary of them. I don't know what good they serve?