A different bear sign.....

[Coasthunterjay]

So i went scouting, excersising, and mushrooming in a different area up near my house a week ago in this little field, which looks promising for deer, lots of deer poo, and tracks...... But i found myself looking upon all these torn up stumps and had remembered someone talking about bears grubbing and that they do this after there winter nap.....from what i could tell they looked freshly torn up to me, could this just be coincidence..........or am i looking for the wrong thing...?

Can someone tell me if this looks like good bear sign to them?

And what else they might look for in the general areas?









As you can tell this isnt a logged out field so i wasnt thinking that any of these could be from human reasons, But i dont know, the first two stumps look promising......

[robodad]

Yep looks like some bear sign to me, what about the shrooms, did you find any ??

Drove by your place yesterday on my way back from Pacific Beach and all I could see was snow !!

[saylean]

Im no expert bear hunter, but have hunted them for a bit. The stumps do look promising, very possible bear(s) were tearing it up, they like the little grubbies. Something else to look for would be damage to small trees (stripping of the bark), bear scat (obviously). Also, keep an eye out for dormant black berry bushes, or blue berries...keep these in mind for when the berries come in. Once they do, go back and revisit the area. Once the berries come back in...they look like something just shreds them to pieces (bears really tear into them)....think of then your a kid and you beat a bush with a stick....looks similar to that IMO. The bushes will often be pushed down a bit to. This happens when the bear just pounces on them to get to more berries. Keep searching for all the good stuff...the more your out...the better the chance! Good luck and have fun!

[Coasthunterjay]

Yep looks like some bear sign to me, what about the shrooms, did you find any ??

Drove by your place yesterday on my way back from Pacific Beach and all I could see was snow !!

yeah had almost a foot of snow on my porch when i woke up, and i remember last week i was out there cooking mallows on the camp fire stove........

No shrooms, to cold and to wet....need to melt some snow and dry up a bit, but i think i know somewhere else that i might be able to find some though........

[Coasthunterjay]

Good words saylean, thanks ill keep my eyes peeled. still a little cold for the berries but later this year there should be plenty......

[KillBilly]

The 3rd up from bottom looks more like Woodpecker or birds. The bottom 2 look more like bear. The top one, I can't figure out anything but a possible old bear tree. It is really hard without having been there. It may be a little early for stump tearing, typically grass and skunk cabbage early in the spring. But not all bears are the same...that is why some peel trees.

[billythekidrock]

First pic very well could be bear, but it is old. Definitely not this year. Notice the grass laying down on top of the duff.

Second pic. The damage is newer, notice the color difference, but I don't know that it is bear. With the recent freezes and thaws and snow that stump could have just fallen apart. If you tried to pull it apart and is seemed solid then you can assume a bear did it.

Third pic.. I have no clue. It looks too old to have many bugs.

When a bear is really getting into the stumps you will find lots of damage in a small area and it will be real noticeable once you learn what you are looking for.

Here is a pic I took a month ago, but as you can tell it is very old. The bear ripped the rootwad apart. You can see the torn off part in the foreground.



Now compare the color of the damaged area in that pic with the ones below. The new damage really shows yellow or orange in an old cut. These pics are a few years old, but when I took them the damage was recent.