Bear Activity Continues To Pickup !

 

One of the new areas I set up trail cameras (TC’s)  last month has had quite a bit of bear activity. Two TC’s were set in a wetland with visible sign of skunk cabbage leaves being foraged on and fresh bear scat. The swamp has mountain laurel on the east side with a game trail skirting the edge of the swamp. The first TC was set hoping to catch bears moving along the swamps edge foraging on skunk cabbage. The second TC was set on a small old scent tree with a visible bear bite mark on it. Both TC sets have been active ! There are three bears in the area,  sow with one yearling, a younger bear with blue ear tag and a larger bear assumed to be a boar. The TCs were set April 20^th. On April 21^st, a yearling climbed the tree ( cover pic)  in front of the TC. Also , a second bear climbed the same tree  on April 22^nd. On May 2^nd, a large boar wandered through showing no interest in the tree that the bears had climbed. I’m not sure why the bears did that. It will be interesting to see if the tree has been climbed a third time with the next SD card check.

           

All my TC’s have been busy in North Central MA capturing black bears on the move. Of the twenty locations I have set up, nineteen  or 95%  have had bear activity, The one site that had no activity was a “ role of the dice” when setting it up. . There was nothing in the area to draw bears. The landscape was ascetically pleasing, and I was hoping to get a bear or two passing through. I pulled those TC’s , they’ll be better used elsewhere.

As of this morning my trail cameras have videoed 25 different bears.

Jim

Bear Activity Very Good !

 

Meet Scar, he ( assumed at this point) has a curved scar on his butt. His first crossing of this beaver dam was on April 16^th and is the only bear to trigger a trail camera in the area so far this year. Last Thursday after checking SD cards I bushwhacked around the swamp and found a bear scent marking tree with a small fresh bite mark on it. I didn’t think much about it until later in the day. With all the TC bear sets that I have made this year , this is the first area with fresh bear sign. On Friday morning I hiked back in with a TC to set up on the bite tree, was I surprised, to see the size of the bite mark now . 

Bite mark on Thursday

 The bear had visited the tree since my visit yesterday morning. 

Bite mark on Friday

It’s likely Scar who scent marked the tree on both days given its proximity to the beaver dam.

It will be interesting to see how many bears visit this site.

Jim