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Author Topic: Late season bear food?  (Read 2953 times)

Offline WoodHacker

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Late season bear food?
« on: November 06, 2023, 07:44:05 AM »
Here at the end of bear hunting season, what are bears eating in the NE corner of our state?
Mountain ash, high bush cranberry, Oregon grape?

Offline LDennis24

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Re: Late season bear food?
« Reply #1 on: November 06, 2023, 09:17:49 AM »
Probably lots of mountain ash and rotten fruit where available. They get drunk on rotten fruit sometimes. I know a place where you can find a bear in the dump pit behind the orchards almost every day and they are usually drunk. Seriously happens alot.

Offline Sutherland

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Re: Late season bear food?
« Reply #2 on: November 06, 2023, 09:49:02 AM »
Oh dang haha, makes sense   :tup:

Offline hunter399

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Re: Late season bear food?
« Reply #3 on: November 06, 2023, 10:28:37 AM »
Just a guess, elderberry may be a late season food source.
If I was an expert,I'd actually see a bear in season.

Offline buckfvr

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Re: Late season bear food?
« Reply #4 on: November 06, 2023, 11:45:06 AM »
Any gut piles and bait piles......sweet cob, apples, deer corn all of it.

Offline WoodHacker

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Re: Late season bear food?
« Reply #5 on: November 06, 2023, 12:02:58 PM »
They get drunk on rotten fruit sometimes.

I hadn't thought of drunken bears, but I have seen birds drunk on rotting grapes.

Offline dilleytech

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Re: Late season bear food?
« Reply #6 on: November 07, 2023, 07:08:38 AM »
Do you guys have lots of mushrooms this time of year? Bears in southern wa are crushing a lot of mushrooms right now.

Offline nwwanderer

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Re: Late season bear food?
« Reply #7 on: November 07, 2023, 07:57:41 AM »
Omnivores, watch your children

Offline Bearhunter308

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Re: Late season bear food?
« Reply #8 on: November 08, 2023, 09:18:17 AM »
One food source that I see evidence of all the time is rotten logs and stumps. Bears will tear into them to get at the bugs inside. As berries go out of season, alternate food sources like this get hit harder.
This is one of my top forms of bear sign that I look for to determine if bears are in an area- stumps that have bark torn off, and often a big hole chewed in the side as the bear goes after termites.
« Last Edit: November 08, 2023, 10:16:44 AM by Bearhunter308 »
When I inevitably choke to death on gummy bears, I’d simply like it said that I was “killed by bears”, and leave it at that

Offline hunter399

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Re: Late season bear food?
« Reply #9 on: November 08, 2023, 11:07:02 AM »
One food source that I see evidence of all the time is rotten logs and stumps. Bears will tear into them to get at the bugs inside. As berries go out of season, alternate food sources like this get hit harder.
This is one of my top forms of bear sign that I look for to determine if bears are in an area- stumps that have bark torn off, and often a big hole chewed in the side as the bear goes after termites.

Stump and logs are good sign.
Only thing with that is it's hard to put a time frame on it in wet weather. Cause I see it all the time,not sure if it was spring ,or yesterday ,unless you can put some fresh tracks,or some other red flags with it. I try to look past the torn up stumps and logs.
Unless I'm seeing other sign.

Offline hunter399

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Re: Late season bear food?
« Reply #10 on: November 08, 2023, 11:08:18 AM »
Do you guys have lots of mushrooms this time of year? Bears in southern wa are crushing a lot of mushrooms right now.
Yup,we do have mushrooms.
I know the deer sure eat them up as well.
In what I call the pine scrub stands

Offline tlbradford

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Re: Late season bear food?
« Reply #11 on: November 09, 2023, 01:59:41 PM »
Elderberries are the last thing I see get eaten by bears.  Seems like they are the brussel sprouts of the bear world.
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Offline ducks4days

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Re: Late season bear food?
« Reply #12 on: November 09, 2023, 03:52:26 PM »
Wasp nests are a big food source pretty much year round. You see them torn out of the ground and ripped open once the berries disappear.
What country can preserve it's liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon & pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots & tyrants.

Offline highcountry_hunter

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Re: Late season bear food?
« Reply #13 on: November 10, 2023, 06:52:28 AM »
Saw one yesterday eating apples off the ground above an old homestead


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Offline HillHound

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Re: Late season bear food?
« Reply #14 on: November 10, 2023, 07:47:51 AM »
Still eating snowberries too, at least where the grouse havnt finished them off

 


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