You know I have never owned bear spray. Guns yes wild life scare shot is great, basically sounds like a bottle rocket.Salt shells, Rubber slugs I have used on griz before.Fish and game supplied coloured paint shot as well.Three shades to mark the blacks so we would know how often they were coming in.Some days we would have more then 8 visits from blacks.
I lived and hiked in the Mission Mountains in heavy grizzly and pain in the rear black bear territory for over 30 years.My boys grew up running the creek bottom with the bear and yes they slept outside and never got snacked on..Awe yes and the husband had been a game warden and trapped hundreds of bears.
You learn to live with them in the surroundings.Once one learns how to handle their garbage and foods it gets easier.Our kids learned this one year when they left some crackers in the tee pee when we ran to town..Came home to find the teepee wall ripped open.They never left food in their sleeping areas outside again. Awe and this was at our house which is on a creek that is considered the most travelled grizzly bear trail in the mission mountains as it leads down to the Kicking Horse and Ninepipes feeding areas.
Grizzlies stink, I mean really stink, you guys think your bone sauce smells bad,, You can smell them before you see them in brushy areas.In our years of living in their natural areas our family only had a few run ins with the griz,one a large male after a snack food baby bear that tried to hide on our back staircase.The niece ran over a cub being chased by a big male on the road in the fall. The other the usual after garbage during the fall feeding frenzy.Awe fall feeding frenzy key words here this is when the bears are aggressive.The neighbour had one trying to get into their home they put up a prison
fence and electric barb wire .Griz males will kill females and cubs during this time as well oh and they have no problem stealing deer as my son found out after shooting one for dry meat or taking out people (hunters in the post creek area).Singing works much better then bells,,LOL the more off key the better.The surprise factor is what makes them more aggressive.
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You will come to find black bears are a huge pain in the rear once they find food or garbage.I found some of them far more aggressive then the griz.Best thing to do right off is build a nice well anchored large container to store garbage if your not going to be able to haul it off daily.oh yea make sure the door is a good one as well.The kids tried to use their porch a few years ago and ended up with a black bear stuck in there after pushing the screen door inside making it non open-able.Yea yea they have those fancy smaancy bear proof garbage cans hahaha unless they are enclosed in an electric
fence you will find yourself wondering around the area searching the damn things down since they will drag them off. They also will occasionally steal a barbecue small table top ones not cleaned they love..But hey we once had a large male take one of the big grills down a steep embankment.Hanging meat in
trees is always a gamble as well..They love brain hide tanning stench and will steal the entire stretched hide in frame work.Open doors or windows in the house they will walk in especially when cooking stinkin menudo.Outside canning same thing..The kids have a door frame that has been ripped by a bear trying to get into their house.
Then we move into other areas, Say composting,we used the bears to turn ours, if they were going to be in it they may as well flip it. Bone sauce is not a deterrent for bears as they love most bad smelling things you may want to test it and make sure it will not draw them in..Bone meal and blood meal used as a fertilizer may be dug up and the soil licked or ate that has the smells.Ummm bio-dynamic fertilizers will be tipped over bathed in and drank..Fish fertilizer is a tasty snack treat they just bite open the bottles and rip the seedlings apart looking for the smell.Out in the gardens mulch that gives off any stink like grass,
straw etc as it breaks down another thing they will dig in.Animal feeds, and animals, we lost 7
chickens to 2 bears last year up here on the lake.Fish ponds are an open bathing area that provides snack food, pending on the liner if you have a visit you may need to watch for repairs, and yes this includes clay based..They are scavengers anything that smells will bring them in...I guess you get the point...
Some things that can help the human pee supposedly helps by marking out ones territory,Never saw results even though I had every man and boy at the house doing it...Around camps and such you can string lines with cans or big bells what ever that makes noises, it will work the first couple of times.Like deer they get used to noises and smells very quickly.I found that the wildlife scare shot was my favourite thing or fireworks, they did not like firecrackers tossed into
water buckets nor the bottle rockets..Once you have your garbage situation figured out, food stores , the kitchen and animal feeds you really
should be fine..The best thing really is like the deer get a nice big old Newfoundland or a nasty mean donkey, to take care of the perimeter..We had miniature weenie dogs that would tree bears and mountain lions just as well as the big hounds did.The bears would still show up with the dogs but would not hang around as long doing damage..Awe and a side note bear that has been eating garbage taste like garbage...
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