Moose Droppings

Mountain Lion Photo by Moose

Reports of Mountain Lion sightings in North Carolina are not all that unusual but totally unproven despite the reports. ( Union County Moore County )
The latest report is from Orange County North Carolina and more specifically the town of Chapel Hill.

Linda Janssen said she was having coffee with her nephew, a 22-year-old Army private visiting for Thanksgiving, when they looked out her kitchen window Friday morning. Janssen’s property backs up to Bolin Creek.

“It was big,” she said. “We were just so stunned.”

Janssen said they saw the animal, as big as her black Lab, in profile and face-on and saw it leap over a tree trunk. They watched the big cat for about a minute and a half.

“It wasn’t a bobcat; it didn’t have that shape,” Janssen said. “It was sleek, like [a Lincoln Mercury] car commercial.”

N&O

Bobcat Photo by Moose

These days between cell phone cameras, digital cameras, as well as game cameras if a mountain lion is prowling the state I’m sure we’ll have some proof. If a cat is loose in Chapel Hill its probably more likely an exotic pet that has escaped.

Story & Photos by Dan McLaughlin AKA Moose

For most of us as hunters there are few circumstances that we become the prey and extremely rare that we’ll face a life and death struggle with a predator but that was the situation the Leming’s faced this past September on a Wyoming elk hunt.

Ron J. and his father, Ron G. Leming, were archery hunting for elk up the South Fork of the Shoshone River in northwest Wyoming in mid-September, about 15 miles into the Washakie Wilderness from the trailhead. It’s an area they are familiar with, having hunted there for the past 15 years.

For three days they’d bugled, cow-called and worked the woods, hoping to arrow a big bull. Fall is when elk breed. Big bulls bugle to challenge other bulls in hopes of breeding more cow elk. Hunters imitate the sounds in hopes of luring the testosterone-amped bulls into range.

During the morning hunt they were working two bulls when they encountered the grizzly bear.

This time, though, something different happened. The bull elk that had been shredding the tree bolted away.

Leming stood up to walk down to his father when again he heard a sound behind him. Turning, he found himself 15 feet away from a full-grown, 11-year-old male grizzly. The Lemings often encounter bears in the backcountry. It’s a huge area that ties into Yellowstone and Teton national parks and the Washakie Wilderness. Last year, a six-point bull elk that Leming shot had been partially consumed by a bear when he returned to pack it out.

“I hollered at him,” Leming said. “I said, ‘Get out of here.’ He waited about a half-second, laid his ears back and came at me full speed.”

Initially, Leming thought about hooking his bow release, a triggerlike device, onto his bowstring and taking a shot. But as he fumbled to hook the release, he quickly discarded that idea. He ran around a tree and sprinted downhill, the big bear hot on his tail.

“I couldn’t believe it,” Leming recalled. “We always talk about what we would do if we ran into a bear. But you never think it’s going to happen to you.”

Leming said he considered standing his ground, but there was no way he was going to drop and play dead. If he dropped, he said, he wasn’t sure if the bear would maul him or just start eating him.

“I’m not going to lay there and let something eat on me,” he said.

Leming, a fence builder, is no small fellow. At 37, he stands 6 feet tall and weighs 230 pounds.

As he blazed past his father, he saw an arrow fly within a foot of his leg.

“The bear was two feet behind me at that point,” Leming said. “I just kept running. I made it three more steps and the bear knocked me down.”

As he was falling, Leming pivoted onto his back. As the bear bore down on him, he fought back, throwing punches and kicking to keep the bear away from his head.

“I wouldn’t have wanted to be on the other end of those,” his father said. “He definitely fought for all he was worth. That kid’s Ford tough.”

But the bear seemed undeterred. Chomping down, the bear bit into Leming’s right arm, just below the elbow.

“I couldn’t believe the force,” he said.

Somehow, Leming managed to get back up and tried to escape again, this time getting tangled in the branches between two trees as he ran. The bear attacked from behind, biting into his shoulder and then pulling him down. This time, the bear bit through his gloved left hand. At the same time, his father was beating the bear on the back with his bow.

“The bear took a couple of steps toward my dad, then he just slowly turned and walked away from us,” Leming said. “Dad put another arrow in his bow, but he didn’t want to shoot.”

The grizzly staggered down the hill about 80 yards and fell over dead. With his first shot at the running bear, the elder Leming had likely nicked the bear’s aorta, causing it to quickly bleed out.

“I was covered in blood,” Leming said. “I didn’t know if it was my blood or the bear’s.

“My dad pretty much saved my life there,” he said. “That’s the thing I cannot believe in this whole story. He stood there with a bow and made that shot at a charging grizzly bear. That’s amazing. You could take that shot a thousand more times and never do it.”

“I’m just glad it ended the way it did,” his father said “The only thing that went through my head was that bear was going to maul my boy.

“I just knew I had one shot. I never thought it would do what it did.”

The elder Leming said he was exceptionally unruffled during the whole incident.

“I was just calm as can be, and I don’t know why,” he said.

He said he prays often. He prays for his family’s safety. And that morning, before hunting, he prayed that God would guide his arrow, although he had a big bull elk in mind.

He figured the bear was about 10 feet from him when he shot, although he can’t remember using the bow’s sight to aim. He also had to wait until his son passed, so his target window was short and his target was moving.

“I knew I was going to hit him, but I didn’t know where,” the father said. “When you’re in a situation like that, it all happens so fast.”

According to Mark Bruscino, bear specialist for Wyoming Game and Fish Department who examined the fight site and the bear the following day, the bear was hit with the arrow in the upper right chest and the arrow continued horizontally into the bear’s body.

“He’s lucky the shot was as lethal as it was, because a wounded bear would’ve done more damage,” Bruscino said. “He lost a large amount of blood in a short period of time.”

Bruscino said the bear, which was in good condition, probably mistook the two for elk because they were calling. The two were also masking their scent with wafers that smell like cow elk urine.

These excerpts are from the full story in the Star Tribune that is certainly worth reading. An amazing story of survival wrapped in themes of faith and family. I’m sure the bond between father and son is stronger now after such an event. I’d be honest if it was me in this situation I’m not sure I’d want to hunt this area any time soon. However the Leming’s plan to return to the area and complete their annual elk hunt.

Ron was left bloodied, dazed and injured, but has healed in the month that’s passed since his ordeal with the large predator’s claws and teeth.

He plans to return to the same spot where the attack occurred, which is the family’s favorite place for elk hunting each fall.

And though bow hunting season is still open, this time the Lemings plan to hunt with rifles.

“And I’ll take my pistol,” Ron added.

He likely always will carry “little scars” on his left hand and right arm from his encounter with the grizzly.

“But I just like to go hunting,” Leming says.

“I don’t blame the bear at all,” he added. “I just think they need a season (on grizzlies) to put a little fear in them.”

Cody Enterprise

I agree with Ron’s statement that a hunting season needs to be put in place. With the reintroduction of predators into an area like the West hunting as a method to control the growth and restore the balance needs to be an option. Maintaining a natural fear of man in large predators like bears, lions, and wolves will help reduce dangerous encounters with humans.

On this hunt they will not go alone, a cameraman from Reel Outdoor TV will accompany father and son on the elk hunt. They plan to try to recover the broadhead from the bear remains if possible. This time their weapons will be firearms and they do not plan to ever allow a bear to get that close to them again.

Story by Dan McLaughlin AKA Moose

This past week I was in Maine Bear hunting this is part two in what I think will be a 4 part series on the hunt. If you missed part one you may want to read that first.

The weather for bear hunting was not great; windy, warm, and threatening to rain. I packed my rain gear in my pack, sprayed down with Primos Silver XP,

load the gun and head for the blind. It is around 2 pm on Monday the hike in is not far but staying on the trail is important while maneuvering through the swampy terrain. I pour the bait I carried in with me into the bucket tied onto the tree and then I retreat back to my blind, which is only about 11 yards away. The blind is made out of burlap and is attached to three trees forming an L shape. Additional brush has been placed in front of the camo burlap to further break it up.

Once in my blind probably the best piece of hunting equipment that I brought with me is pulled out of my pack. The Thermecell is a portable mosquito repellent machine that works phenomenally well.

Within mere minutes of starting this up the pesky mosquitoes are gone. The Thermecell operates virtually silently and odorless off a butane canister that is inside the Thermecell and an external pad of repellent that is released when it is heated.

With the skeeters dealt with I go about making sure there is nothing to close that I can brush up against to make noise and that the chair is positioned the right way. Within a few minutes of getting settled down the woods return to normal as the Chickadees’ find the food in the bait bucket which sets off non stop flights to and from the bucket that would rival O Hare during the Thanksgiving rush.

Observing the wildlife is great fun and besides the birds the squirrels are now feeding out of the bait bucket as well. A couple of brief rain showers rolled through but I stayed pretty dry with the tree canopy overhead. The wind kept up though and none of the big critters seemed to be moving. Around 6pm I caught a flash in the woods but I wasn’t to sure what it was. I knew it was to small for a bear but it wasn’t a squirrel either. A few minutes latter a red fox exploded out of the weeds near the bait site catching an inattentive squirrel as it descended the tree the bait bucket was hanging from. With dinner in his mouth the fox trotted down the trail that past a few feet off to the left of my blind. A couple minutes latter he returned down the same trail and caught another squirrel near the bait bucket.

While theses events were very entertaining it was also very reassuring that the Primos Silver XP was working. This fox had walked by me only 3 or 4 feet away and never reacted to me being there. He did this not once but three times so I knew my scent control was good.
The first day’s hunt ended without me even seeing a bear but that’s fine because on Tuesday all that will change when I have a foot race with a bear. Tuesday’s exciting hunt will be in part three of this story.

An eight year old boy and his father were mauled in what is being reported as an unprovoked attack by a small juvenile boar bear near a popular hiking trail.

Evan Pala was cut, scratched and bitten. His father, John Pala of Boca Raton, also was cut before driving off the bear with rocks and sticks. They were both treated and released from a nearby hospital a few hours after the attack late Monday.
The boy was playing in a creek near a popular trail “and the bear just came and pounced on him for no apparent reason,” park spokeswoman Nancy Gray said.

The Rainbow Falls trail is a popular hiking trail where this attack took place and no shortage of people this time of year. While bear experts or rangers will tell you bear attacks are rare they seem to be happening more frequently.

“This is so rare,” said Lynn Rogers, director of the North American Bear Center in Ely, Minn. “I don’t know if you would call a bear like that a demented bear, like some people, or a super bear that decides, ’Hey, I can take a person.”’
Gray said roaming bears have been active this year, with several wandering into urban areas. Yet there have been fewer cases of “problem” or “nuisance” bears requiring capture and relocation.

MSNBC

This seems like a pretty bold attack by a predator but not outside what would be considered typical behavior. There have been other attacks including 2 fatal encounters since 2000. Telling people these are rare no longer seems like a reasonable explanation. Bear populations need to be kept in check what better way to instill fear of humans then to allow hunting? Bears need to see man as something to fear rather then one of its major food groups.

Story & Photo by Dan McLaughlin AKA Moose

Last summer seemed to be the summer of dangerous bear encounters with a number of fatalities reported across the country. As bear numbers continue to climb and habitat gets gobbled up encounters are going to be more enviable. To many people view wildlife with the same mentality as animals in the zoo and will crowd a wild animal. I’ve witnessed what could only be best described as stupid as people attempt to get near wildlife. Especially with bears you need to keep your distance for the most part they are a shy animal that will more often the not avoid human contact. A bear with a single swipe of it’s paw to the head could kill you. Many dangerous encounter are the result of getting to close to or between a sow and her cubs.

In recent news there are two bear human encounters that show carelessness on humans. The first is out of Utah where a camper smacked a bear in the head with a flashlight the other night when the bear stuck its head in the tent.

A woman sleeping at a Mirror Lake campground hit a bear with a flashlight to drive it out of her tent sometime around 2 a.m on July 25. The bear had stuck its head in her tent, presumably following a scent of food, when it surprised the woman who reacted by pummeling it with the light.
The bear scurried off and left the woman unharmed, according to Bruce Johnson of the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources (DWR).

Park Record

Keeping a dirty camp in bear country is just asking for trouble, people need to follow proper storage rules to prevent encounters like this. Additionally the article goes on to explain that the woman failed to report it until hours later to camp ground staff. This can be really dangerous because the bear may visit another campsite and the outcomes may not be the same.

Second story is out of Alaska where a grizzly bear killed a moose calf in someone’s yard. Authorities posted the area and was going to let the grizzly sow feed on it till it was consumed however too many people decided to sightsee the area creating a very dangerous situation.

Sinnott went to the kill site Tuesday and Wednesday. On Tuesday, he posted signs telling walkers to be cautious and to avoid the area. The bear was behaving just like a bear should, he said.
“If this is all she’s doing, I’m not too worried,” he said.
By Wednesday, he had something to be worried about.
He decided to retrieve the carcass after learning people were ignoring the signs. Instead of avoiding the bear’s storage locker in the woods, people were looking for it and checking out the half-buried calf.

ADN

I’m sorry but people are nuts. Why would anyone in their right mind want to go in and look at a grizzly bear kill site?

Bears, like most predators, will eat whatever they can get the easiest and they’ll protect their kill. Bears are can be very dangerous and that should be the thought you have in your mind when ever you happen upon one. I love to photograph them but I use zoom lens and try to let them know I’m around so I don’t surprise them.

People can do the right thing especially when authorities have closed an area because of bear activity please honor those requests. If you live in bear country or will be spending some time in bear country find out the rules around bears and avoid doing things that will attracted them in.

Bear management I believe these days is more people management and that is pretty sad.

Story & Photo by Dan McLaughlin AKA Moose

(Photo courtesy of Harnett County Animal Control and WRAL)

Well maybe a bit of a stretch but animal control and North Carolina Wildlife officials captured another 8 foot gator that was snarling up traffic earlier this week highway 401. This is less then a year since they relocated another 8foot gator to a more secluded part of the county. In case you were wondering if this was the same gator it is not according to the Dunn Daily Record;

Mr. Ellington speculated it was possible the alligator is the one captured and released in a pond on Christian Light Road near Angier in August. Residents caught the alligator in a pond with the assistance of animal control officers. It was then taken to another pond with an undisclosed location, still in Harnett County, where Mr. Ellington said, to his knowledge, it has continued to live.

He said the owner in that case was comfortable with the large reptile in his pond.

“The gentleman last year said he didn’t have a problem with it and said he would keep an eye on it,” Mr. Ellington said. “It is possible it migrated up to the location where we found the alligator Sunday.”

Animal Control Supervisor Tino Medina said the owner of the pond where the alligator was put last year reported to his office that the alligator is still in the pond.

“We figure it has to be a different one,” he said

I was alerted to this story by one of my reader’s Chuck who lives in Harnett County and has been trying to get me down there to catfish with him and his boys. I’m not sure emailing me stories like this makes me any more inclined to join them for a fishing outing.
This particular gator has been relocated to an undisclosed area closer to the coast where it is more common to find them. Two 8 ft gators in less then a year makes me think the population must be growing if they are looking to expand their territory this far up the Cape Fear River.

Story by Dan McLaughlin

Earlier this week I did a story about big bears in the eastern part of the state but the reality is that bear management in this state has increased the number of bears across the entire state. The concentration of bears remains in the western and eastern sections of the state but we in the central portions of the state are coming across the occasional bear.

With the increase in bears and the increase in human populations as well as the development of land that were once undeveloped bear and human encounters are also on the rise. Over the years the black bear has not been viewed by many people with the same fear that his cousin the grizzly but that perception is changing with the numerous attacks over the past few seasons.

North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission has issued some tips to help those living in bear country and the big one is to not purposely or inadvertently feed a bear because he’ll return time after time looking for food.

“Feeding a bear rewards it for coming in close proximity to you and your home,” said Michael Juhan, a commission biologist. “When the food becomes unavailable, the bear may resort to damaging items around your property in search of it. In addition, bears feeding on unnatural food sources around your home may cause them to lose their fear of humans and approach them – a situation that rarely ends well for the bear and could have potential safety issues for humans as well.”

NCWRC

Moving bears that have become a problem bear is not a practice that the NCWRC will do because it often does not work these bears will need to be killed. Studies have shown that bears moved from one area to a new area, even if it’s a 100 miles, will often return to the old area. Additionally bears that have learned to associate humans with food can be unpredictable and extremely dangerous.

Here are some thing we can do around our homes and camps to avoid problems;

• Secure bags of trash inside cans stored in a garage, basement or other secure area, and place outside as late as possible on trash pick-up days – not the night before.
• Purchase bear-proof garbage cans or bear-proof your existing garbage container by outfitting it with a secure latching system.
• Discontinue feeding wild birds during spring and summer, even with feeders advertised as “bear proof.” Bears can still be attracted to seed that spills on the ground.
• Do not “free-feed” pets outdoors. If you must feed pets outdoors, make sure all food is consumed.
• Clean all food and grease from barbecue grills after each use. Bears are attracted to the food odors and may investigate.

NCWRC has additional resources on how to co-exist with wildlife that is worth checking out.

Logan Kensing a pitcher for the Florida Marlins is now in the crosshairs of the fringe left because of his off season legal actions to help manage feral pigs and coyotes by shooting them from a helicopter. Logan hunts them on a family owned ranch in Texas that they manage for deer hunting. These animal rights groups wish to tie a legal practice to a highly illegal activity of dog hunting and the Michael Vick case.

Texas as many other states are having a problem with feral hogs as they reproduce at such a fast rate that control of them is important to prevent them from destroying both native fauna and wildlife. Once again this is an attack by the wackos with a hope that the mainstream populace will follow them and oppose such wildlife control practices. They know that aerial control of certain species is used rarely but in places where it is they will protest it with the hopes they’ll gain ground on their ultimate endeavor to end the practice of killing animals for any reason and to end man’s ownership of animals.

The Palm Beach Post has a video that was provided to them by Logan I’m not sure who did the editing but it seems to try to blur the issue because it appears he is hunting deer when he is hunting hogs.

We need to stand up to these idiots and not allow a legal practice be so easily tied to an illegal practice such as dog fighting. When the Michael Vick story broke many in the animal rights community attempted to tie the practice to hunting and here we go once again.

The Brown Pelican is about to be removed from the endangered species list now that the populations have increased along the southern coastline. I got to admit that this is one of my favorite birds to watch because it looks so awkward that one wonders if they can fly when you see them sitting on a pier post. But then you seeing them soaring over the waves looking for dinner and you can’t help but marvel at how effortlessly they do this, until they dive in with a splash on top of some unsuspecting fish. I can watch these guys for hours while listening to the pounding surf and often do while I’m at Carolina Beach.

Scott Harper from the Virginia Pilot has a great story about the Brown Pelicans comeback and some of the challenges predators present to this bird. Seems like many birds the raccoon can do a number on the nests eating the eggs. Good predator control is important and trappers provide an important service along with hunters to help keep the predators in check.

Photo Felidae Conservation Fund

Eric York a biologist for the National Park Service contracted pulmonic plague after doing a necropsy on a mountain lion that died from the same disease inside of Grand Canyon National Park.

More times then not it’s Law Enforcement Park Rangers who get killed while working for us and we don’t often think about the other jobs within the National Parks and the dangers those individuals face. Eric grew up in my home state of Massachusetts and it appears that he was doing the job of his dreams. He worked at Grand Canyon National Park studying mountain lions.

When Eric passed away he was currently a biologist for the National Park Service studying mountain lions at Grand Canyon National Park. In addition to his own research Eric consulted on several carnivore studies in the western United States.

He had a B.S. in Wildlife Biology from University of Maine and a M.S. in Wildlife Conservation from University of Massachusetts.

Eric specialized in research capture methods and techniques. He had captured and tagged 23 different species of carnivores (six of these being felids) for research. Over the last 15 years he has worked throughout the United States, in Chile, Nepal, and Pakistan.

Felidae Conservation Fund

Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends at this difficult time. If your like me and never knew Eric take a moment and read some of the articles about the work he was doing. I think you’ll come to same conclusion that I have that this was a bright dedicated man that was taken too soon and the wildlife conservation community lost a rising star.

Update on the reported sighting of an African Lion roaming free in West Virginia.
Animal control personnel have set up cameras in the area where the African Lion is reported to be roaming in West Virginia. They are using both game cameras as well as Motion-sensitive video cameras owned by the state Department of Environmental Protection and used to catch litterbugs. Officials want to confirm that they are dealing with a African Lion before proceeding with a plan to trap the lion in a bear trap used to capture troublesome bears.

Photo Courtesy of NC Zoo

After multiple reports of a lion being spotted in the Greenbrier County West Virginia officials have begun to look for the creature. Lion sightings up and down the east coast are often reported on and speculated about and the over all validity of such sightings are often question.
Union County

Moore County

Moore County Update

Almost always the lion in question is the infamous mountain lion or eastern cougar however in this situation the lion in question appears to be of African decent.

Witness have described an African male lion with a mane wandering around Cold Knob.
Jim Shortridge was bow hunting in the area in a ground blind and had the lion around him for 40 minutes.

“It had a mane, so I could tell it was a male. And I’m sure it wasn’t a bear. Bears are all over Cold Knob. I see six to eight of them every time I go hunting, and I can tell the difference. Bears don’t shake me up at all. This lion made me pretty nervous,” he said.

Tiger Mountain Refuge is located in the area but they are not missing any of their cats. Speculation is that this lion, if sightings are true, either escaped from someone or was turned loose by someone. These big cats in captivity have often had their claws removed and makes hunting for them difficult if they even know how to hunt after being in captivity. We certainly don’t want anyone hurt and if this is a captive cat that has been turned loose I hope they catch who is responsible for this cruel act. We’ll continue to follow this story as it develops.

Charleston Daily Mail

Metro News of W Va