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Speaker 1: My name is Clay Nukeleman. I'm the host of the

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Speaker 1: Bear Hunting Magazine podcast. I'll also be your host into

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Speaker 1: the world of hunting the icon of the North American

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Speaker 1: Wilderness Fair. We'll talk about tactics, gear, conservation. We will

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Speaker 1: also bring you into some of the wildest country on

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Speaker 1: the planet Chasing Bear. We're back to bears and we've

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Speaker 1: got an expert in the global headquarters today. Myron means

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Speaker 1: that Arkansas Game and Fish Commission Large Carnivore Biologist, which

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Speaker 1: inside of that title fits versus American It's the black Bear.

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Speaker 1: Myron means is in the office and we continue to

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Speaker 1: dig into the nitty gritty of bears. We talked about

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Speaker 1: this year's bear season and have a great conversation. I

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Speaker 1: always love talking to biologists. You're gonna enjoy this podcast.

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Speaker 1: There are several muzzloader seasons that are still going on

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Speaker 1: across the country and you should check out c v

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Speaker 1: A Muzzleloaders. C v A has a full line of muzzleloaders.

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Speaker 1: And you heard my story last week about falling in

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Speaker 1: a creek when I was carrying my Accura Mountain rifle

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Speaker 1: across the creek and the gun went underwater. The breech

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Speaker 1: plug went underwater for about two seconds. I pulled it out,

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Speaker 1: came back to the truck and fired the gun just

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Speaker 1: to see if it would fire, and it did. The

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Speaker 1: real question you should be asking is why did I

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Speaker 1: fall in the creek? Well, I was crossing the creek

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Speaker 1: without a light and it was a long story. But

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Speaker 1: the real other question you need to be asking yourself

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Speaker 1: is why don't you have a cv A muzzloader. Historically

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Speaker 1: muzzloaders have been undependable and wet weather. This was the

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Speaker 1: ultimate test and they've got a really tight system to

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Speaker 1: break over guns with the breech plugs that you can

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Speaker 1: unscrew with your hands are hard to beat. C v

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Speaker 1: A also has a great warranty on their guns. If

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Speaker 1: you're not happy with a gun, you can return it

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Speaker 1: within fourteen days, you know, with proof of purchase and

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Speaker 1: some other stuff, but you get your money back. Check

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Speaker 1: out our buddies at c v A for all of

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Speaker 1: your muzzleloading needs. I am very excited about getting into

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Speaker 1: coon hunting this winter. My schedule usually is a coon

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Speaker 1: hunt a fair bit during the summer and in the

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Speaker 1: early fall, and then I take a hiatus while I'm

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Speaker 1: deer hunting and bear hunting, and then I come back

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Speaker 1: to coon hunting about mid December. And if you don't

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Speaker 1: have a coon dog, you need one. But if you

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Speaker 1: have a coon dog or any kind of dog, a

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Speaker 1: pet dog, bear dogs, squirrel dogs, beagle dogs, labradors, whatever

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Speaker 1: you have if you're buying dogs to fight from our

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Speaker 1: friends at W Hunting Supply, Buddy would Bury and his

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Speaker 1: team have assembled an incredible customer service experience from all

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Speaker 1: the products they offer to the support that they offer

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Speaker 1: to their customers. Buddy and W. They're well known for

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Speaker 1: being garmen dealers. They have the garment to an or alpha.

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Speaker 1: I check out W for all of your hounds supply needs.

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Speaker 1: North Woods Bear Products the best commercial sense made for

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Speaker 1: baiting black bear and we're gonna want to check them out.

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Speaker 1: Check out their bear grease. You hear me rant rant

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Speaker 1: about it constantly. We use this stuff. It's great stuff.

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Speaker 1: Get ready for spring and your bear baiting. Check out

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Speaker 1: our buddies at Northwest Bear Products and lastly our buddies

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Speaker 1: at the Western Bear Foundation. There nonprofit hunting conservation organization

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Speaker 1: fighting the good fight for conservationists and hunters and people

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Speaker 1: that love to procure healthy organic protein through bear hunting.

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Speaker 1: These guys are fighting the good fight out west where

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Speaker 1: there's a lot of things going on that are a

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Speaker 1: threat to bear hunting. So join our friends organization Western

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Speaker 1: Bear Foundation. So that that that bear right there is

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Speaker 1: that bear and that picture this photograph I took right

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Speaker 1: where I killed that bear. Yes, he was. He was

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Speaker 1: laying right here. He had his head laid on that

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Speaker 1: rock right there, and I was I was up like

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Speaker 1: about sixty yards. Oh yeah, he I never saw it then,

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Speaker 1: I mean there was he was just sunbathing, but he

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Speaker 1: was laid on that rock and there was no there

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Speaker 1: was no dens that I could see anywhere, but anyway

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Speaker 1: he was, he was just laying I saw him roll over,

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Speaker 1: That's what I saw from sixty yards where I saw

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Speaker 1: his feet go up in there like this. And then

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Speaker 1: I just stalked down and was able to shoot him. Man,

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Speaker 1: it was a wild deal. And there was after I,

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Speaker 1: you know, kill the bear and was you know, getting

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Speaker 1: him out and stuff. We started seeing bear sign all

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Speaker 1: over that side of the mountain. I don't think he

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Speaker 1: was going much more than a couple hundred yards their direction,

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Speaker 1: but there was white oak akerns all over the mountain

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Speaker 1: that year, and uh yeah, I'll that that animal right

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Speaker 1: there to me. I'll never kill another animal that I'm

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Speaker 1: more proud of. I may kill another one that I'm

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Speaker 1: as proud of. Well that's a pretty unique experience. I mean,

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Speaker 1: you could hunt the rest of your life like a

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Speaker 1: banshee during bear season and never be able to replicate

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Speaker 1: that experience. Well, and what was cool was I was

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Speaker 1: after a bear, and I had been after one for

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Speaker 1: a long time. And I've learned something since that time, though,

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Speaker 1: and that is they're easier to kill in the mountains

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Speaker 1: in the early season. All my reasoning back then was,

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Speaker 1: you know, our bear season goes to November. I'm recording

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Speaker 1: by the way our our bear season Arkansas goes to November.

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Speaker 1: Was that in the late season, the leaves were all

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Speaker 1: gone and you could see good. Was kind of what

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Speaker 1: I thought, because you know, you start hunting a bear

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Speaker 1: in early October and Arkansas is gonna be hot. You

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Speaker 1: can't see more than forty fifty yards in the indirection.

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Speaker 1: But unfortunately, the bears are usually gone by the bears

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Speaker 1: are slow moving by then. And what I learned was

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Speaker 1: you're way better off with a bow and era in

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Speaker 1: the early season than you are. I mean, I I

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Speaker 1: ended up having more success right now is it's a

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Speaker 1: super tough time to call a bear. But hey, I'm

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Speaker 1: We're at the Global Headquarters and I've got uh, I've

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Speaker 1: got Myron Means with me. Myron works for the Arkansas

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Speaker 1: Game and Fish Commission. He is a large carnivore biologist.

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Speaker 1: And you've been on the podcast before. I have uh,

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Speaker 1: first time of the Global Headquarters. Of the first time

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Speaker 1: to the Global Headquarters. Man, I love it. This is

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Speaker 1: a really nice place. Well you, of all people could

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Speaker 1: probably appreciate some of these Arkansas bears hanging in here.

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Speaker 1: Um and uh now really appreciate you coming up. So

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Speaker 1: you um being a large carnivore biologists. You were the

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Speaker 1: bear biologists and your name changed. And we're gonna talk

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Speaker 1: about this at a later time more in depth, but

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Speaker 1: large carnival biologists. What else does that entail? Mountain lions?

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Speaker 1: Mountain lions. Uh, that's pretty incredible, And we're intentionally not

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Speaker 1: talking about that for because we will at some point.

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Speaker 1: But black bears, you what what trends did you see?

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Speaker 1: I've honestly not paid a ton of attention this year

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Speaker 1: to the quotas and different things. Uh, what what's the

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Speaker 1: bear season in Arkansas have been? Like? Bear season in

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Speaker 1: Arkansas this year is, Uh, without a doubt, it's going

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Speaker 1: to be a record harvest year. And that is solely

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Speaker 1: attributed to the fact that we raised the bears on

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Speaker 1: one quota, which is the Ozarks quota. We raised the

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Speaker 1: bears on one quote from two hundred and fifty to

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Speaker 1: four hundred or five hundred total, four hundred of archery

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Speaker 1: and fifty momsloader fifty modern gun. But it's a cumulative quota.

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Speaker 1: So that means when muzzload season comes in, you add

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Speaker 1: fifty more bears to the four hundred. When modern guns

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Speaker 1: season starts, you add another fifty bears, and and so

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Speaker 1: the fifty stack on top of the four hundred, stacked

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Speaker 1: on top of the four fifty. So it's a cumulative

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Speaker 1: total total. And I think a lot of people didn't

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Speaker 1: really understand that this year. Will you will you break

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Speaker 1: you just did break it down, but will you break

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Speaker 1: it down even slower? Like so, archery season starts the

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Speaker 1: fourth Saturday in September. Well, I mean for the foreseeable

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Speaker 1: future in Arkansas, if you're wondering about when you need

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Speaker 1: to take vacation or something like that, just look on

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Speaker 1: the calendars for the next few years. Anyway, archery season

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Speaker 1: will coincide with dear archery season, which is for the

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Speaker 1: foreseeable future probably going to be the fourth Saturday in September. Uh,

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Speaker 1: the muzzleoad season will begin the third Saturday in October,

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Speaker 1: and the modern gun season will usually start the second

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Speaker 1: Saturday in November, and the Saturday prior to that is

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Speaker 1: going to be a youth modern gun season. So the

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Speaker 1: first Saturday and November is going to be a youth weekend.

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Speaker 1: Second Saturday and said November is going to be the

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Speaker 1: modern gun deer and bear seasons. Yeah, that's uh, that's

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Speaker 1: just kind of the way we've we've set the same

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Speaker 1: framework for the foreseeable future to coincide deer season with

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Speaker 1: bear season. I mean, if people are going to be

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Speaker 1: out there bear hunting, they can deer hunt. If they're

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Speaker 1: gonna be deer hunting, they can bear hunts. It really

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Speaker 1: is a great opportunity. So tell me how the quota

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Speaker 1: works with archery. So archery season starts, and first of all,

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Speaker 1: there's there's two main bear zones in Arkansas. Zone one,

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Speaker 1: which is Ozark zone that's correct. Zone two, which would

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Speaker 1: be the Washtall No no quota in zone two. No,

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Speaker 1: you know, we kind of figured out several years ago

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Speaker 1: that because of the landownership and the way the wash

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Speaker 1: Tall Zone is laid out, bear Zone two is laid out,

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Speaker 1: you have a big contiguous block of public land, which

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Speaker 1: is the Ozark National Forest. That's kind of the questionall

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Speaker 1: excuse me, Washtaw National Forest. Uh, it's kind of the

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Speaker 1: core nucleus of that bear population. And uh, there's bear

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Speaker 1: outside the Washtaw National Forest, but the National Forest acts

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Speaker 1: as a nucleus. And because there's not a lot of

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Speaker 1: private land interspersed within that contiguous block, a lot of

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Speaker 1: those bears aren't really susceptible to being harvested, say over

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Speaker 1: Bay over something like that. So it's really kind of

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Speaker 1: a self limiting situation. Regardless of you know, what we

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Speaker 1: do in zone one, they're typically gonna harvest kind of

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Speaker 1: the same amount of bears about every year. So. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: So so zone one has the quota and um so

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Speaker 1: the quote, so the archery quota, what is how much?

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Speaker 1: Uh it was two hundred and fifty This year, we

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Speaker 1: raised it to UH four hundred, and that seems like

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Speaker 1: a substantial jump, and it was a substantial jump. But

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Speaker 1: because the way we framed our regulation process, we can

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Speaker 1: only recommend regulations every other year now. UH. We used

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Speaker 1: to be able to recommend every year so we could

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Speaker 1: change them, you know, we could take a baby step

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Speaker 1: this year and then a baby step the year after.

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Speaker 1: But the way it's set up now is we can

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Speaker 1: only propose every other year, and last year we weren't

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Speaker 1: able to adjust it up. So this year was kind

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Speaker 1: of a little bit of a makeup from not being

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Speaker 1: able to adjust it last year. And so what that

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Speaker 1: would mean would be archery hunters could kill up to

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Speaker 1: four hundred bears and before the season closed. So the season,

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Speaker 1: you know, in theory, they could kill four hundred bears

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Speaker 1: and three days in the season would close and it

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Speaker 1: wouldn't open back up again until muzzload season, when you

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Speaker 1: added fifty more bears to that quota, and if they shot,

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Speaker 1: uh say, if they shot fifty bears during the muzzload

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Speaker 1: season uh by Monday, then the bear season would close

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Speaker 1: again the following Monday, after the opening weekend of muzzload,

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Speaker 1: and it would not open again until the youth weekend

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Speaker 1: of modern gun, which would add fifty more bears starting

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Speaker 1: at that point. Uh. It kind of confused people a

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Speaker 1: little bit this year because it's it's a cumulative quota,

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Speaker 1: and uh, they did not made the quota this year

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Speaker 1: with archery. Uh. I think when we went into muzzload season.

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Speaker 1: I'd have to go back and look at the numbers,

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Speaker 1: but I think we were sitting somewhere around three hundred

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Speaker 1: eighty bears maybe when muzzleload season started, so we hadn't

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Speaker 1: met the quota. But when that opening day of muzzlold

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Speaker 1: season hits, those fifty bears were added to the previous

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Speaker 1: four hundred quota, So we could have killed seventy bears, right.

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Speaker 1: So instead of you know, the quota being hit, or

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Speaker 1: instead of saying, well, we got twenty more bears with

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Speaker 1: archery we can kill and you can kill fifty with muzzloader,

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Speaker 1: that just confuses. That just muddies the water. So the

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Speaker 1: easiest thing to do is say, okay, it was four

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Speaker 1: hundred bears up until the opening day of muzzload season,

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Speaker 1: and then that adds fifty more bears, so now the

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Speaker 1: quote is four hundred and fifty and because you know,

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Speaker 1: any season in Arkansas you can with a lesser weapon.

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Speaker 1: So when muzzload season closed nine days later, the quota

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Speaker 1: was still four hundred and fifty bears, but you could

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Speaker 1: continue to hunt with archer archer. That makes sense and

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Speaker 1: so we uh so basically as a management decision that

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Speaker 1: you guys made was, hey, we can take out five

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Speaker 1: hundred bears out of Arkansas. And so where do we

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Speaker 1: stand right now? Today's November, Yes, November twenty three in

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Speaker 1: our zone one total right now stands at four hundred

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Speaker 1: forty nine, four forty nine fifty one more bears until

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Speaker 1: November three. And I bet, I bet they won't kill them.

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Speaker 1: Do you think they will? I don't think they will really,

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Speaker 1: since um, I'd have to go back and look at

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Speaker 1: the day to day. But I think when when youth

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Speaker 1: modern gun season started, I believe we were at four

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Speaker 1: hundred and maybe twenty really, so only twenty bears got

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Speaker 1: killed eat. Yeah, with the modern gun and the opening

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Speaker 1: weekend of deer season, that just tells you a lot

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Speaker 1: about bear activity because it was a ton of guys

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Speaker 1: hunting National Forest with a bear tag in their pocket.

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Speaker 1: In Arkansas, everybody that's got a sportsman's license, which is

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Speaker 1: our sportsman's license. I think that's what it's called. You

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Speaker 1: get turkey tags, deer tags, you get a bear tag.

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Speaker 1: So in Arkansas you don't have to go buy no

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Speaker 1: specific bear tag. Everybody's got a bear tag. And I

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Speaker 1: would I bet of Arkansas deer hunters would shot a

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Speaker 1: bear if they saw it. You think, so, I mean

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Speaker 1: there's probably add there's an odd guy that might be like,

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Speaker 1: I'm not gonna especially if they knew, you know, the

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Speaker 1: season was still open and everything. So yeah, but you

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Speaker 1: know they're probably not going to meet the quota. Uh.

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Speaker 1: Today was today. This year was a really lean year

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Speaker 1: for mass availability. There was not a lot of masts

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Speaker 1: on the ground. Uh and uh, I think a lot

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Speaker 1: of the bears started turning in, especially the pregnant females,

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Speaker 1: probably the salves. They probably were starting to uh enter

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Speaker 1: the dance as early as late October, I think, so

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Speaker 1: I'll do. And you know, you can tell by the

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Speaker 1: way it trickled in through the youth gun season uh

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Speaker 1: and the opening of the deer gun season the adults season.

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Speaker 1: You can just tell. I mean one or one bear

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Speaker 1: checked every day, or one or two bears checked every day.

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Speaker 1: You can tell when it's like that they're just not

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Speaker 1: out on the landscape. Well, that's what's so interesting, always

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Speaker 1: has been to me, and a lot of people don't understand,

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Speaker 1: is that, you know, our our winters are relatively mild

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Speaker 1: compared to especially north of us. But these bears are

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Speaker 1: dinning based upon food availability. And then the females are

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Speaker 1: obligate dinners, which means, and these are all words I've

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Speaker 1: probably learned from you, myron Um, obligate dinners meaning they're

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Speaker 1: the only bear that actually has to den because there

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Speaker 1: they have their cubs and their reproductive cycle takes place

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Speaker 1: when they're in the den. But if there was a

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Speaker 1: bunch of mass crop on the ground, the bears would

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Speaker 1: be more active, they would be they'd be staying out,

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Speaker 1: and it's there. It's really kind of an issue of

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Speaker 1: energy dynamics with bears. I tell people all the time,

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Speaker 1: bears don't den in response to cold weather, because they

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Speaker 1: certainly don't. We've we've tracked females in February, uh, doing

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Speaker 1: den checks on them when they're laying on top of

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Speaker 1: the ground with four inches of snow covering them and

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Speaker 1: two cubs sitting under their belly. I mean, the cold

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Speaker 1: is not a factor with bears. It's food availability. So

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Speaker 1: you know, if they fed up, had a good late

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Speaker 1: summer and early fall, and they're really fat, the pregnant

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Speaker 1: females are going to enter the den cycle and they're

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Speaker 1: gonna stay. Um. If there's enough food on the landscape,

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Speaker 1: it may push their entrance into that den cycle a

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Speaker 1: little later. Instead of being laid October, it maybe mid November. Uh.

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Speaker 1: Females with year leans or cubs of that year, uh,

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Speaker 1: you know, they'll stay out later. If they're not going

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Speaker 1: to be in an energy deficit finding food walking around

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Speaker 1: all day, then they'll stay out like that. That's a

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Speaker 1: good way to say it. That's a good biological term.

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Speaker 1: I'm gonna put my repertoire and energy deficit. So they're

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Speaker 1: going out there, they're burning calories, pounding the mountain trying

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Speaker 1: to find food. If they're not getting as many calories

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Speaker 1: as they're expending, they're going to sleep. Is that right?

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Speaker 1: That's right? If it's not worth If if they end

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Speaker 1: up at an energy deficit, then there's no point. I

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Speaker 1: was calculated that way. I would stay home and play golf, man,

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Speaker 1: I am had a massive energy I have. I have

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Speaker 1: had a massive energy deficit this year because I have

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Speaker 1: expended a lot of calories. I need to be at

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Speaker 1: an energy deficit because I put on a little too

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Speaker 1: much weight. But it, uh you know, and it it

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Speaker 1: progressively gets less I guess, um less specific or less important.

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Speaker 1: When you move to males. You know, males, uh you know,

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Speaker 1: they're not hard dinners like females, and uh you know,

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Speaker 1: in any given warm day, uh, a male is likely

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Speaker 1: to emerge from a den, walk around, sniff around a

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Speaker 1: little bit. And because they're not locked into den really

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Speaker 1: for a specific amount of time with either year leans

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Speaker 1: or cubs that are being born, I mean, you know,

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Speaker 1: a lot of times males will emerge from the den,

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Speaker 1: usually by late January early February. If it's really really cold,

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Speaker 1: you know, they'll just tuck in and sleep it off.

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Speaker 1: But if they're all acorns on the landscape in December,

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Speaker 1: sure a lot of males will get out and forward

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Speaker 1: even in December. You know, this is really telling to me.

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Speaker 1: I've bear hunted in East Tennessee with some houndsman, and

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Speaker 1: they've got the super late bear seasons that go into

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Speaker 1: I think the Tennessee bear season and it may be

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Speaker 1: structured different, but for the region we were in, their

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Speaker 1: season went to December, and those guys find bear tracks

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Speaker 1: every day, and it's of time males. Yeah, I was

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Speaker 1: gonna say it's probably set that way to specifically target males.

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Speaker 1: I mean, if they still have a quote a fairly

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Speaker 1: young population or you know, they're still trying to grow

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Speaker 1: their population, yeah, they're gonna do things to target males. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: And it blows my line because you know, over in

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Speaker 1: the Appalachians there, I mean they're at some hot, pretty

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Speaker 1: fairly high elevations, at least compared to here. I mean,

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Speaker 1: they got mountains six thousand foot tall, and it's cold

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Speaker 1: in late November and December, I mean like single digits sometimes,

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Speaker 1: and these guys load up their hounds and rig bears

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Speaker 1: and strike a track and uh run bears and and

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Speaker 1: do real well. I mean and it's and it's they'll

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Speaker 1: tell you. I mean they're paying attention to the nuances

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Speaker 1: between the different years. I've only been over there once

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Speaker 1: with them during that time period, and I mean we

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Speaker 1: ran bears every day. I mean you wouldn't have you

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Speaker 1: would have just thought bears were just up on their

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Speaker 1: feet like crazy, all males and uh but uh, I

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Speaker 1: think they would say there's years when it's not that good.

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Speaker 1: Maybe the year I was there was exceptionally good. I

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Speaker 1: don't know, but I mean, you know, if there's a

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Speaker 1: lot of masks, you know, I would say it's probably

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Speaker 1: going to determine a lot how the late summer and

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Speaker 1: fall was going into the season. You know, if the

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Speaker 1: bears are really really fat, have a lot of fat

356
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Speaker 1: on and then it just turns off really cold. Um,

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00:22:01,440 --> 00:22:03,919
Speaker 1: you know that. I don't know, but that might be

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Speaker 1: a badge year I said. They're just like, hey, I'm

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Speaker 1: I'm just wonder how they like we gauge are energy

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Speaker 1: levels day to day. I feel like based upon whether

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Speaker 1: we're full or not, Like literally like if we've eaten

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Speaker 1: in our stomachs feel full. These bears are gauging their

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Speaker 1: understanding of their health and long term you know, ability

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Speaker 1: to survive based upon fat reserves. Have you ever heard

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Speaker 1: anybody talk about that? I would never have, But just

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Speaker 1: do you see what I'm saying? Because they're their belly

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Speaker 1: is not gonna be full of food, what's telling their brain?

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Speaker 1: What's Yeah? Yeah, it's it's almost like there's got to

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Speaker 1: be a different receptor that's like, hey, boys, we've got

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Speaker 1: plenty of fat. We're just gonna burn this today. Don't

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Speaker 1: worry about getting up and eating. Would say that those

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Speaker 1: are probably you know, physiological clues that they've evolved to

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Speaker 1: because it doesn't work that way with you even, does it.

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Speaker 1: It certainly doesn't work that way with me. But then again,

375
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Speaker 1: my life doesn't depend on finding an acorn for food.

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Speaker 1: So but yeah, it's kind of a fascinating deal. The

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Speaker 1: whole dynamics of you know, their physiology and the processes

378
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Speaker 1: they go through, you know, for den cycles is uh,

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Speaker 1: it's absolutely remarkable. And I mean you can tell it's

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Speaker 1: not something they just evolved into over a few generations.

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Speaker 1: I mean you're talking about millennia of evolution that is,

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Speaker 1: you know, and they have they have refined it to

383
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Speaker 1: the point of no other. Yeah, man, if if that's

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Speaker 1: what's so interesting at looking at these animals from a

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Speaker 1: biological level and trying to understand even just the kind

386
00:23:50,480 --> 00:23:54,480
Speaker 1: of the small level of understanding that we probably really have,

387
00:23:54,680 --> 00:23:59,840
Speaker 1: it's incredible and and um, well, you know, for years

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Speaker 1: years in the scientific community, you know, bears, bears, weren't

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Speaker 1: category categorized as true hibernators. They were estivators, you know,

390
00:24:09,000 --> 00:24:15,439
Speaker 1: because they can arouse spontaneously, whereas true hibernators like groundhogs

391
00:24:15,720 --> 00:24:22,119
Speaker 1: would chocks, they can't. But because bears can arouse spontaneously,

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Speaker 1: they said, well, you know, they just don't exhibit some

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Speaker 1: of the traits of true hibernators, and um they've sent

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Speaker 1: The scientific community has since turned around and said, well,

395
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Speaker 1: you know, they are true hibernators in a sense, but

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Speaker 1: technically they're probably some of the most efficient hibernators in

397
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Speaker 1: the animal world because of the way they can They

398
00:24:49,760 --> 00:24:53,840
Speaker 1: can basically turn on and off, you know, their body

399
00:24:53,920 --> 00:24:57,880
Speaker 1: processes that allow them to go into this torpor and everything,

400
00:24:57,880 --> 00:25:01,199
Speaker 1: whereas a true hibernator can't. You know, they what So

401
00:25:01,280 --> 00:25:03,880
Speaker 1: you're you don't realize what you just said and how

402
00:25:03,920 --> 00:25:07,320
Speaker 1: it affected me because I have made a living myron

403
00:25:07,440 --> 00:25:11,800
Speaker 1: off correcting people. Every people that have listened to this

404
00:25:11,840 --> 00:25:16,440
Speaker 1: podcast have heard me harp on when people say it

405
00:25:16,520 --> 00:25:19,360
Speaker 1: bear hybridates, I go, no, no, no, no, they don't hybridate.

406
00:25:19,400 --> 00:25:22,159
Speaker 1: Bears hybrid So you're telling me this is wrong, Well,

407
00:25:22,200 --> 00:25:25,479
Speaker 1: technically in a true sense of the definition, you know,

408
00:25:25,720 --> 00:25:30,600
Speaker 1: of the word bears are not true hibernators, but they

409
00:25:30,680 --> 00:25:37,480
Speaker 1: certainly exhibit body processes that the true hubernators use. The

410
00:25:37,640 --> 00:25:42,080
Speaker 1: thing that makes them quote not a true hibernator in

411
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Speaker 1: the historic sense of the word, is the fact that

412
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Speaker 1: they can turn on and off those body processes that

413
00:25:49,760 --> 00:25:55,160
Speaker 1: define a true hibernator. Uh, they wake up, but son

414
00:25:55,240 --> 00:25:59,639
Speaker 1: of them. Yeah, basically means they can wake up right instantly.

415
00:26:00,320 --> 00:26:03,160
Speaker 1: They can arouse instantly, which they always do when we're

416
00:26:03,160 --> 00:26:05,719
Speaker 1: doing our den work. They always wake up. They always

417
00:26:05,760 --> 00:26:10,760
Speaker 1: know you're there. Uh, their motor their muscles aren't at

418
00:26:10,800 --> 00:26:14,640
Speaker 1: a their body temperature never does fall at a low

419
00:26:14,760 --> 00:26:18,880
Speaker 1: rate like a true hibernator does. But their heart rate

420
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Speaker 1: at things like that will lower to a great degree

421
00:26:24,400 --> 00:26:28,320
Speaker 1: what it is, but their body temperature doesn't lower that much.

422
00:26:28,400 --> 00:26:34,120
Speaker 1: So there's some things that could categorize hyperation in short periods. Maybe, Okay,

423
00:26:34,160 --> 00:26:36,280
Speaker 1: I see what you're saying, but the world he is

424
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Speaker 1: not wrapped. I think I still got some credibility. It's

425
00:26:38,680 --> 00:26:43,080
Speaker 1: pretty it's pretty fascinating, you know, reading in the literature

426
00:26:43,160 --> 00:26:46,480
Speaker 1: when they talk about well, you know, bears aren't true hibernators,

427
00:26:46,520 --> 00:26:49,840
Speaker 1: but they're probably the most efficient hibernators, efficient in the

428
00:26:49,920 --> 00:26:52,760
Speaker 1: animal world because they're able to just turn it on

429
00:26:53,359 --> 00:26:58,080
Speaker 1: and turn it off almost at will. Well, so it's

430
00:26:58,080 --> 00:27:04,320
Speaker 1: pretty remarkable. But when you think about what's happened ecologically

431
00:27:04,359 --> 00:27:07,680
Speaker 1: across North America and you see how successful bears are

432
00:27:08,160 --> 00:27:11,960
Speaker 1: being right now, it's pretty incredible. I mean they're they're

433
00:27:12,520 --> 00:27:18,760
Speaker 1: opportunistic omnivorees that just have survival built down into this

434
00:27:18,840 --> 00:27:23,119
Speaker 1: like incredible efficiency, like you really do. And really, you know,

435
00:27:23,320 --> 00:27:27,680
Speaker 1: we've I guess we've kind of found out all across um,

436
00:27:27,760 --> 00:27:31,399
Speaker 1: you know, North America that really all bears really need

437
00:27:31,480 --> 00:27:35,680
Speaker 1: is pretty good habitat and uh, you know, they're they're

438
00:27:35,680 --> 00:27:38,800
Speaker 1: gonna they're gonna thrive. I mean, you know, they're not

439
00:27:38,840 --> 00:27:42,639
Speaker 1: gonna just boom like some other animals will on lands

440
00:27:43,240 --> 00:27:46,160
Speaker 1: and yeah, like a white tailer or even kyo. They're

441
00:27:46,160 --> 00:27:50,959
Speaker 1: not going to adapt to urban environments only. But we

442
00:27:51,040 --> 00:27:56,000
Speaker 1: have found out that, you know, because bears are opportunistic omnivorees, man,

443
00:27:56,119 --> 00:27:58,120
Speaker 1: just give them a little bit of good habitat and

444
00:27:58,320 --> 00:28:02,480
Speaker 1: they'll do fine. Um, I want to I guess this

445
00:28:02,560 --> 00:28:04,400
Speaker 1: is a good this is a good place to tell

446
00:28:04,440 --> 00:28:08,280
Speaker 1: you this story. So I saw a bear because we're

447
00:28:08,320 --> 00:28:11,600
Speaker 1: talking about like this is a difficult time to hunt bears,

448
00:28:11,800 --> 00:28:16,800
Speaker 1: sea bears. It's bear season in Arkansas, and uh I

449
00:28:16,800 --> 00:28:20,440
Speaker 1: I saw a bear two days ago in National Forest. Yeah.

450
00:28:20,560 --> 00:28:22,560
Speaker 1: When you told me that, I said, man, that was

451
00:28:22,800 --> 00:28:26,720
Speaker 1: your pretty fortunate. What was while is it broke all

452
00:28:26,760 --> 00:28:30,720
Speaker 1: the rules. It broke all the rules of my of

453
00:28:30,840 --> 00:28:33,320
Speaker 1: what I mean, it was the I was deer hunting, man.

454
00:28:33,400 --> 00:28:35,840
Speaker 1: I mean, I it was the last thing I expected

455
00:28:35,880 --> 00:28:38,400
Speaker 1: to see. I knew I was in good bear country.

456
00:28:38,680 --> 00:28:40,680
Speaker 1: I mean any other time of the year, I would

457
00:28:40,680 --> 00:28:43,440
Speaker 1: have thought, yeah, there's a chance I could see a bear.

458
00:28:43,600 --> 00:28:46,360
Speaker 1: But there was no bear sign. I mean, like I'd

459
00:28:46,400 --> 00:28:52,080
Speaker 1: been over that country pretty good and uh no bear sign,

460
00:28:52,680 --> 00:28:54,960
Speaker 1: didn't have any bear pictures. I had a few cameras

461
00:28:54,960 --> 00:28:59,440
Speaker 1: out and uh man, I did an all day hunt.

462
00:29:00,160 --> 00:29:02,000
Speaker 1: You know, I got in after daylight just because I

463
00:29:02,200 --> 00:29:05,800
Speaker 1: walked back in there. But setting a tree for nine

464
00:29:05,800 --> 00:29:08,720
Speaker 1: hours in the middle of the day, I don't know

465
00:29:08,760 --> 00:29:10,320
Speaker 1: if that had anything to do with it. I mean,

466
00:29:10,920 --> 00:29:12,480
Speaker 1: you know, it was the warmest part of the day,

467
00:29:13,720 --> 00:29:16,160
Speaker 1: but it was at eleven fifty two. I looked down

468
00:29:16,800 --> 00:29:20,000
Speaker 1: in uh salt bear, a good sized bear bar and

469
00:29:20,080 --> 00:29:23,440
Speaker 1: I can't. I won't say it was a big one,

470
00:29:24,040 --> 00:29:27,840
Speaker 1: but considering that it was still up and it was alone,

471
00:29:27,880 --> 00:29:30,680
Speaker 1: I mean, I would assume it was a male. I mean,

472
00:29:31,000 --> 00:29:33,960
Speaker 1: probably a pretty good chance it was a male. And uh,

473
00:29:34,240 --> 00:29:36,520
Speaker 1: it just looked to me. It looked like a two

474
00:29:36,920 --> 00:29:39,760
Speaker 1: fifty pound bear, you know, I could tell it had

475
00:29:39,800 --> 00:29:43,800
Speaker 1: a thick, nice coat. And uh, it was across a

476
00:29:43,880 --> 00:29:46,800
Speaker 1: boundary line that I could not There was a property

477
00:29:46,840 --> 00:29:49,560
Speaker 1: line there. I was on public land, but it was

478
00:29:49,600 --> 00:29:52,440
Speaker 1: anyway I couldn't. I couldn't shoot the bear, which was

479
00:29:52,520 --> 00:29:57,000
Speaker 1: crazy because that it was I wasn't there because of

480
00:29:57,080 --> 00:29:59,920
Speaker 1: the property change. But anyway, it was in a place

481
00:30:00,000 --> 00:30:04,040
Speaker 1: that I couldn't shoot the bear. But it was man.

482
00:30:04,320 --> 00:30:09,360
Speaker 1: I mean, I'll take that memory and like chalk it

483
00:30:09,480 --> 00:30:14,680
Speaker 1: down as almost the equivalent of a of taking an animal.

484
00:30:14,800 --> 00:30:18,440
Speaker 1: I mean, because I can count on well, I'm starting

485
00:30:18,480 --> 00:30:21,880
Speaker 1: to have a few more encounters these days, but very

486
00:30:22,080 --> 00:30:24,400
Speaker 1: very few times do I actually see a bear on

487
00:30:24,520 --> 00:30:28,680
Speaker 1: public land. Like you know, I've killed some that way.

488
00:30:28,680 --> 00:30:31,520
Speaker 1: But it's tough, man, and it's a it's a great man.

489
00:30:31,680 --> 00:30:34,360
Speaker 1: Was kind of built especially on years like this year,

490
00:30:34,400 --> 00:30:38,840
Speaker 1: you know, when mass availability was very lean, uh, you know,

491
00:30:38,920 --> 00:30:43,160
Speaker 1: and and that kind of it's I said, you were

492
00:30:43,200 --> 00:30:46,560
Speaker 1: fortunate because I've been watching the harvest, you know, updating

493
00:30:46,600 --> 00:30:48,920
Speaker 1: the harvest totals every day, and I could tell by

494
00:30:48,960 --> 00:30:53,480
Speaker 1: the end of muzzload season, which was twenty something of October,

495
00:30:54,200 --> 00:30:58,000
Speaker 1: I could tell by then that, you know, harvest rates

496
00:30:58,120 --> 00:31:00,440
Speaker 1: for I mean down to just a can't if you

497
00:31:00,640 --> 00:31:03,360
Speaker 1: one or two bears a day maybe something like that.

498
00:31:03,440 --> 00:31:06,640
Speaker 1: And you're talking about, you know, all the hunters across

499
00:31:06,680 --> 00:31:10,640
Speaker 1: the landscape, you know, it's uh, there's a lot of

500
00:31:10,680 --> 00:31:14,280
Speaker 1: deer hunters out there. And when you're only harvesting one

501
00:31:14,400 --> 00:31:18,280
Speaker 1: maybe two bears across all zone one, you know, that's

502
00:31:18,320 --> 00:31:21,760
Speaker 1: just your translates to me, the bears just aren't out

503
00:31:22,560 --> 00:31:26,120
Speaker 1: So I knew it was getting pretty lean, uh, you know,

504
00:31:26,200 --> 00:31:29,120
Speaker 1: going into the modern gun season and everything else. In

505
00:31:29,160 --> 00:31:32,080
Speaker 1: the course of harvest reports show evidence of that. It's

506
00:31:32,160 --> 00:31:35,080
Speaker 1: just bears just aren't out there. Man, when the food

507
00:31:35,160 --> 00:31:38,160
Speaker 1: is not there, they just rather turn in that. I

508
00:31:38,240 --> 00:31:41,440
Speaker 1: must have been pretty close to that bears den I figure, so,

509
00:31:42,360 --> 00:31:44,320
Speaker 1: you know, and a lot of times in the Wash Toalls.

510
00:31:44,360 --> 00:31:47,560
Speaker 1: What we've seen in the Wash Toalls is probably thirty

511
00:31:47,640 --> 00:31:50,480
Speaker 1: or forty percent of the bears that din just make

512
00:31:50,600 --> 00:31:53,520
Speaker 1: day nests or make a nest on top of the ground,

513
00:31:53,680 --> 00:31:56,440
Speaker 1: And that's different than those arcs. Yeah. Do you think

514
00:31:56,440 --> 00:31:59,200
Speaker 1: it's because of the rock cavity availability. I think so.

515
00:31:59,400 --> 00:32:03,240
Speaker 1: I'm still formations are a lot more prevalent in the

516
00:32:03,240 --> 00:32:06,320
Speaker 1: ozarks than they are in the wash of dolls. And

517
00:32:06,360 --> 00:32:09,320
Speaker 1: as I said before, you know, bears don't really they

518
00:32:09,320 --> 00:32:12,960
Speaker 1: don't really need, you know, to be out of the element,

519
00:32:13,080 --> 00:32:17,640
Speaker 1: so to speak. That makes zero sense to me. I

520
00:32:17,640 --> 00:32:20,880
Speaker 1: mean a bear cut big a hole, he can. I

521
00:32:20,880 --> 00:32:23,360
Speaker 1: mean there's not as many rock cliffs and the wash dolls,

522
00:32:23,560 --> 00:32:27,080
Speaker 1: I mean, there's very much less. But it wouldn't be

523
00:32:27,080 --> 00:32:29,680
Speaker 1: hard for a bear to find up crevice and a rock,

524
00:32:30,120 --> 00:32:32,600
Speaker 1: or a dugout under a tree, a tree that's fallen

525
00:32:32,640 --> 00:32:35,200
Speaker 1: over and just dig out under it, which is what

526
00:32:35,360 --> 00:32:38,840
Speaker 1: most of the cavities are in the wash dolls are dugouts.

527
00:32:39,640 --> 00:32:42,480
Speaker 1: And then but you know, you have a fair piece

528
00:32:42,600 --> 00:32:45,840
Speaker 1: of bears that just scratch up a bunch of leaves

529
00:32:45,840 --> 00:32:48,520
Speaker 1: and grass and sit right on top of the ground.

530
00:32:48,560 --> 00:32:50,840
Speaker 1: Now they're they're gonna be chances are there going to

531
00:32:50,920 --> 00:32:53,240
Speaker 1: be in the middle of a thicket or something some

532
00:32:53,400 --> 00:32:56,680
Speaker 1: really really thick area and they'll just scratch it out,

533
00:32:57,560 --> 00:33:01,080
Speaker 1: making big birden extraight on top the ground. That's crazy.

534
00:33:01,120 --> 00:33:03,800
Speaker 1: So I figured you were probably pretty close to this

535
00:33:03,920 --> 00:33:06,800
Speaker 1: bears den. I mean, you know, they may limit their

536
00:33:06,840 --> 00:33:10,120
Speaker 1: activity to maybe an hour or two a day, you know.

537
00:33:10,880 --> 00:33:15,600
Speaker 1: So yeah, well it was a I've made it like

538
00:33:15,680 --> 00:33:18,880
Speaker 1: a like a holiday if I see a bear in

539
00:33:19,000 --> 00:33:22,680
Speaker 1: national forest. I mean really, I I was just thrilled

540
00:33:22,760 --> 00:33:25,120
Speaker 1: to see that bear, and it was cool because I

541
00:33:25,200 --> 00:33:28,240
Speaker 1: wasn't expecting the last thing I was expecting. So that's

542
00:33:28,240 --> 00:33:30,160
Speaker 1: always a good That's a good day in the mountains

543
00:33:30,160 --> 00:33:33,120
Speaker 1: when you see a bear. Uh. Um. So if you

544
00:33:33,160 --> 00:33:36,200
Speaker 1: guys up the quota, that must mean that our bears

545
00:33:36,240 --> 00:33:40,440
Speaker 1: are doing good. You know, they really are. They're doing great. Uh,

546
00:33:40,560 --> 00:33:43,960
Speaker 1: They're doing great in the Washtawls. They're doing great in

547
00:33:44,000 --> 00:33:48,600
Speaker 1: the Ozarks. I mean, you know, we still have bears

548
00:33:48,680 --> 00:33:52,000
Speaker 1: moving into northeast Oklahoma. We still have bears moving in

549
00:33:52,040 --> 00:33:57,200
Speaker 1: the south central Missouri, you know, presumably expanding out from

550
00:33:57,200 --> 00:34:02,120
Speaker 1: our Ozark population. And uh, you know, we've known for

551
00:34:03,080 --> 00:34:06,320
Speaker 1: a few years that we needed to start throttling up

552
00:34:06,360 --> 00:34:10,320
Speaker 1: on our harvest to kind of maybe stabilize those populations,

553
00:34:10,640 --> 00:34:14,600
Speaker 1: and uh, you know, we we were probably behind a

554
00:34:14,640 --> 00:34:18,640
Speaker 1: little bit on you know, the increases that we've made,

555
00:34:18,800 --> 00:34:21,560
Speaker 1: so we made a little bit bigger jump. We think

556
00:34:21,600 --> 00:34:25,440
Speaker 1: the population can certainly was stand it. Uh. So you know,

557
00:34:25,560 --> 00:34:29,040
Speaker 1: we'll see how it rocks along at five hundred bears

558
00:34:29,080 --> 00:34:31,719
Speaker 1: for a couple of years and kind of see how

559
00:34:31,760 --> 00:34:35,360
Speaker 1: the population responds. And you know, we may at some

560
00:34:35,440 --> 00:34:37,360
Speaker 1: point in the future have to back it off a

561
00:34:37,400 --> 00:34:40,160
Speaker 1: little bit, but I would be willing to bet we're

562
00:34:40,160 --> 00:34:44,719
Speaker 1: probably gonna be fine. Yeah. Man, it feels like we

563
00:34:44,840 --> 00:34:47,400
Speaker 1: kill a lot of bears in Arkansas at five hundred bears.

564
00:34:47,440 --> 00:34:50,960
Speaker 1: But what it puts into perspective for me, like a

565
00:34:50,960 --> 00:34:57,240
Speaker 1: lot of these uh, like the Great Lakes States, Wisconsin, Michigan.

566
00:34:57,280 --> 00:35:01,200
Speaker 1: I mean I think Michigan kills three thousand bears a year. Uh.

567
00:35:01,239 --> 00:35:06,879
Speaker 1: I think Pennsylvania, I think they killed nine thousand. Incredible

568
00:35:07,239 --> 00:35:10,640
Speaker 1: nine thousand something like that typically I saw. But I

569
00:35:10,640 --> 00:35:12,840
Speaker 1: mean they harvest more bears than we probably have in

570
00:35:12,920 --> 00:35:16,279
Speaker 1: our entire state. So you know, but I mean this

571
00:35:16,360 --> 00:35:19,680
Speaker 1: year so far today we're up to six hundred forty eight,

572
00:35:20,360 --> 00:35:23,760
Speaker 1: which surpasses our previous record harvest year. Of five hundred

573
00:35:23,760 --> 00:35:26,400
Speaker 1: and thirty three. Now how could we Okay, then I

574
00:35:26,440 --> 00:35:30,200
Speaker 1: don't understand the quota. We've killed six hundred bears this year. Yeah,

575
00:35:30,239 --> 00:35:33,040
Speaker 1: but that's bears on one bear zone, two bears on

576
00:35:33,200 --> 00:35:36,200
Speaker 1: five bears one five bears. You. So, how many bears

577
00:35:36,200 --> 00:35:38,440
Speaker 1: are they killed in the wash tows this year? Hundred

578
00:35:38,520 --> 00:35:41,560
Speaker 1: ninety four, which is going to be a record year

579
00:35:41,600 --> 00:35:44,600
Speaker 1: for the wash tolls as well. Hundred and ninety four.

580
00:35:45,400 --> 00:35:48,480
Speaker 1: I'll be doron okay, that is yeah, I think so

581
00:35:48,600 --> 00:35:54,520
Speaker 1: we're a hundred and one. Uh, we're a hundred and

582
00:35:55,320 --> 00:36:00,800
Speaker 1: above our previous harvest record statewide. Yeah, today we'll probably

583
00:36:00,840 --> 00:36:03,920
Speaker 1: have I don't know we'll break six d and fifty

584
00:36:03,960 --> 00:36:08,640
Speaker 1: but maybe people killed. Yeah, well that's that's awesome. Now, Mayer,

585
00:36:08,680 --> 00:36:11,520
Speaker 1: and you're a bear hunter. You do some bear hunter? Yeah,

586
00:36:11,800 --> 00:36:15,080
Speaker 1: tell me about y'all y'all season. Well, I'm a little

587
00:36:15,280 --> 00:36:16,920
Speaker 1: I don't know. I don't know if I want to

588
00:36:16,920 --> 00:36:23,239
Speaker 1: tell to me. I hunt, I hunt there. Uh, I

589
00:36:23,320 --> 00:36:25,680
Speaker 1: hunt on private land. We have a lease, and I

590
00:36:25,760 --> 00:36:30,840
Speaker 1: have some really good friendships that I've developed from people

591
00:36:30,840 --> 00:36:33,920
Speaker 1: in Texas and people in Nebraska, and we share hunts

592
00:36:33,960 --> 00:36:37,360
Speaker 1: back and forth and uh, we're in the least together

593
00:36:38,400 --> 00:36:43,880
Speaker 1: and uh uh I usually because our lease, you know,

594
00:36:44,000 --> 00:36:48,240
Speaker 1: is about forty minutes from my house. Uh, I usually

595
00:36:48,320 --> 00:36:50,680
Speaker 1: kind of take care of most of debating. And we

596
00:36:50,800 --> 00:36:54,880
Speaker 1: have some really really great landowners to have some nice

597
00:36:54,920 --> 00:36:58,160
Speaker 1: lodging facilities on the least for us, and we're able

598
00:36:58,200 --> 00:37:00,600
Speaker 1: to just kind of have the run of the place speak.

599
00:37:01,480 --> 00:37:07,240
Speaker 1: And uh so we had we ended up having seven

600
00:37:07,280 --> 00:37:11,720
Speaker 1: hunters this year because one of the one of my friends,

601
00:37:11,760 --> 00:37:15,759
Speaker 1: instead of him hunting, he brought his eleven year old

602
00:37:15,800 --> 00:37:19,640
Speaker 1: son and his eighteen year old daughter and he wanted

603
00:37:19,680 --> 00:37:22,160
Speaker 1: to put them on the stand ins tod him hunting.

604
00:37:23,360 --> 00:37:27,280
Speaker 1: And so out of seven hunters we were, we harvested

605
00:37:27,320 --> 00:37:31,040
Speaker 1: five bears out of our camp this year. And uh

606
00:37:31,560 --> 00:37:34,840
Speaker 1: one of the guys that chose not to harvest bears,

607
00:37:34,880 --> 00:37:39,719
Speaker 1: he actually had several opportunities and some younger bears. Uh

608
00:37:39,760 --> 00:37:46,239
Speaker 1: he had a golden opportunity to a collared female and uh,

609
00:37:46,520 --> 00:37:49,440
Speaker 1: we can't know, we can't harvest the collared bear, but

610
00:37:49,520 --> 00:37:51,719
Speaker 1: he got some really good pictures over it was a

611
00:37:51,760 --> 00:37:54,200
Speaker 1: great expd you know what bear it was? I do

612
00:37:54,320 --> 00:37:58,760
Speaker 1: know which bear it was. Unfortunately, Uh, this particular bears

613
00:37:58,840 --> 00:38:02,399
Speaker 1: collar has quit work and we lost her last year

614
00:38:03,280 --> 00:38:05,400
Speaker 1: and uh, there was no reason because it was a

615
00:38:05,400 --> 00:38:08,319
Speaker 1: brand new collar, but it was some type of malfunction

616
00:38:08,600 --> 00:38:11,120
Speaker 1: and it has to be that bear. But she doesn't

617
00:38:11,120 --> 00:38:13,600
Speaker 1: have a working collar. But I know she was den

618
00:38:13,680 --> 00:38:16,040
Speaker 1: probably pretty close in that area, So I plan on

619
00:38:16,120 --> 00:38:21,520
Speaker 1: catching her this spring. She'll have cubs with her, I suspect,

620
00:38:22,480 --> 00:38:26,480
Speaker 1: so she's gonna be pretty close and I'll catch her

621
00:38:26,480 --> 00:38:28,440
Speaker 1: this spring when she comes out. You have one of

622
00:38:28,440 --> 00:38:32,960
Speaker 1: those orange collars, bright orange collars. Yeah, I'm pretty sure

623
00:38:33,080 --> 00:38:34,520
Speaker 1: that's the bear. It had to be. And I went

624
00:38:34,560 --> 00:38:37,799
Speaker 1: in with my telemetery gear when we were baiting, and uh,

625
00:38:38,000 --> 00:38:41,520
Speaker 1: she was pretty consistent at a couple of the different barrels,

626
00:38:41,560 --> 00:38:43,600
Speaker 1: and I knew she had to be right there, and

627
00:38:43,640 --> 00:38:46,239
Speaker 1: I ran through all my frequencies and didn't have them

628
00:38:47,080 --> 00:38:50,120
Speaker 1: because of the proximity of where she's at. It could

629
00:38:50,160 --> 00:38:53,160
Speaker 1: really only be one of them, one bear that I

630
00:38:53,239 --> 00:38:59,040
Speaker 1: called ago. So yeah, but yeah, so really, I mean,

631
00:38:59,080 --> 00:39:01,600
Speaker 1: when you break it down, I'm the only person that

632
00:39:01,680 --> 00:39:04,279
Speaker 1: didn't have a chance or harvest the bear out of

633
00:39:04,320 --> 00:39:09,000
Speaker 1: our camp was the bear bottle? Isn't that the way

634
00:39:09,040 --> 00:39:15,319
Speaker 1: it always works? The short end? But you know, it

635
00:39:15,440 --> 00:39:17,800
Speaker 1: was a great year. I didn't have too much heartburn

636
00:39:17,840 --> 00:39:20,359
Speaker 1: about it. I never do. I mean, anytime you can

637
00:39:20,760 --> 00:39:23,200
Speaker 1: you can feel five tags out of a bear camp,

638
00:39:23,280 --> 00:39:26,640
Speaker 1: it was a really good year. So yeah, I was

639
00:39:26,680 --> 00:39:30,680
Speaker 1: really happy with that. So that's good. But it was

640
00:39:30,920 --> 00:39:32,760
Speaker 1: it was a good year. I mean, it was really

641
00:39:33,239 --> 00:39:35,960
Speaker 1: it was a perfect year to set up for, you know,

642
00:39:36,040 --> 00:39:38,759
Speaker 1: for baiting on private land. And really, I mean, if

643
00:39:38,800 --> 00:39:41,560
Speaker 1: you had the right circumstances, it was really a perfect

644
00:39:41,640 --> 00:39:44,759
Speaker 1: year for someone to hunt public land too. And you

645
00:39:44,760 --> 00:39:46,640
Speaker 1: know that's something that you and I have talked about

646
00:39:46,680 --> 00:39:49,480
Speaker 1: in the past about public land bear hunting, you know,

647
00:39:49,600 --> 00:39:54,600
Speaker 1: hunting bear specifically on public land. And I have people

648
00:39:54,640 --> 00:39:57,160
Speaker 1: tell me all the time, they said, man, you know

649
00:39:57,280 --> 00:39:59,960
Speaker 1: it's well, you know you have bear hunt on private land,

650
00:40:00,040 --> 00:40:03,080
Speaker 1: you've got a good lease. It's easy. Well, it's not

651
00:40:03,200 --> 00:40:06,120
Speaker 1: really easy. It's never a sure thing. It is a

652
00:40:06,160 --> 00:40:08,719
Speaker 1: lot of hard work. And I think a lot of

653
00:40:08,719 --> 00:40:10,839
Speaker 1: people don't believe me when I tell them this, But

654
00:40:10,960 --> 00:40:14,399
Speaker 1: you know, given the right circumstances in the year with

655
00:40:15,280 --> 00:40:19,760
Speaker 1: sparse mass availability, you know, really, if you can find

656
00:40:19,800 --> 00:40:23,640
Speaker 1: that one white oak flat or that one white oak

657
00:40:23,840 --> 00:40:27,640
Speaker 1: on a flat, that's really throwing good mass that year.

658
00:40:28,480 --> 00:40:32,239
Speaker 1: You know that can be as effective, by far and

659
00:40:32,280 --> 00:40:35,400
Speaker 1: away as effective as a bait site. It can actually

660
00:40:35,400 --> 00:40:38,759
Speaker 1: be more effective because if you've baited for any length

661
00:40:38,800 --> 00:40:42,640
Speaker 1: of time, you know that when the white oaks get ripe,

662
00:40:43,120 --> 00:40:46,040
Speaker 1: all the bears leave the bait sites and go eat

663
00:40:46,040 --> 00:40:51,040
Speaker 1: the white oaks. So uh and uh really, you know,

664
00:40:51,120 --> 00:40:54,879
Speaker 1: I just I tell people, if you can hit, if

665
00:40:54,920 --> 00:40:57,719
Speaker 1: the mass of ailability is right, when it's kind of

666
00:40:57,800 --> 00:41:01,400
Speaker 1: lean or sparse. Uh uh. And you go out and

667
00:41:01,400 --> 00:41:04,680
Speaker 1: you find those natural bait sites, those white oaks, those

668
00:41:04,719 --> 00:41:07,560
Speaker 1: white oak flats that you see all the sign app

669
00:41:07,680 --> 00:41:10,160
Speaker 1: that you would at abit barrel, they can be just

670
00:41:10,280 --> 00:41:13,080
Speaker 1: as effective, if not more effective than the bait barrel.

671
00:41:13,239 --> 00:41:15,840
Speaker 1: And you tell them what you told me about time

672
00:41:16,920 --> 00:41:20,400
Speaker 1: theory on you know, spend my theory on time spend.

673
00:41:20,520 --> 00:41:22,719
Speaker 1: I tell people, I said, you know, they said, well

674
00:41:22,800 --> 00:41:25,719
Speaker 1: baiting is easy, Well it's not. I mean, if if

675
00:41:25,760 --> 00:41:28,600
Speaker 1: it's done right, if it's done the way, I'm gonna

676
00:41:28,600 --> 00:41:31,120
Speaker 1: do it every year. And you count all the time,

677
00:41:31,239 --> 00:41:35,160
Speaker 1: all the hours you spend going to your lease or

678
00:41:35,200 --> 00:41:43,920
Speaker 1: your land, clearing, shooting lanes preseason, maybe moving stands preseason, gathering,

679
00:41:44,640 --> 00:41:47,800
Speaker 1: gathering Oh my gosh, if I could tell you the

680
00:41:47,840 --> 00:41:51,520
Speaker 1: amount of hours that I spent opening bread packages and

681
00:41:52,280 --> 00:41:56,279
Speaker 1: everything else going to get debait. I mean, and if

682
00:41:56,320 --> 00:41:59,400
Speaker 1: you're baiting on a you know, a real regimented bait

683
00:41:59,520 --> 00:42:03,719
Speaker 1: sched jewel once every two or three or four days,

684
00:42:03,760 --> 00:42:08,200
Speaker 1: and you know it's it is a lot of time.

685
00:42:08,280 --> 00:42:12,160
Speaker 1: I mean, you're gonna spend hours and hours and hours

686
00:42:12,239 --> 00:42:16,319
Speaker 1: and hours doing it, right, And uh so, I mean,

687
00:42:16,480 --> 00:42:19,240
Speaker 1: you know, if you spent the equivalent amount of time

688
00:42:20,320 --> 00:42:24,319
Speaker 1: serveying a public area that you knew pretty well and

689
00:42:24,520 --> 00:42:29,040
Speaker 1: really fine tuned, you know your knowledge of that area,

690
00:42:29,920 --> 00:42:32,200
Speaker 1: I have no doubt in my mind that you could

691
00:42:32,200 --> 00:42:36,319
Speaker 1: successfully hunt bear on natural bait sites just as effectively

692
00:42:36,360 --> 00:42:39,759
Speaker 1: as you can on uh man made basis. I think

693
00:42:39,800 --> 00:42:42,680
Speaker 1: that's a good a good perspective and a good way

694
00:42:42,680 --> 00:42:45,440
Speaker 1: to look at it, is that. Yeah, And I think

695
00:42:45,440 --> 00:42:47,520
Speaker 1: you're right. I think if you if you really spent

696
00:42:47,640 --> 00:42:50,880
Speaker 1: that much time, here's the problem. Here's the mental challenge

697
00:42:50,880 --> 00:42:55,279
Speaker 1: with doing that is when you're baiting bears, you're seeing them,

698
00:42:55,320 --> 00:42:58,000
Speaker 1: you're getting pictures of them. And let's say you've got

699
00:42:58,040 --> 00:43:00,520
Speaker 1: thirty hours, Like if you did the math, you know,

700
00:43:00,640 --> 00:43:02,520
Speaker 1: you're like two hours here, two hours, so you got

701
00:43:02,520 --> 00:43:05,920
Speaker 1: thirty Well you're gonna go put thirty hours you know,

702
00:43:06,160 --> 00:43:10,040
Speaker 1: in the stand or on the ground hunting. And for

703
00:43:10,080 --> 00:43:13,240
Speaker 1: those thirty hours, you're probably not gonna see very many bears,

704
00:43:13,280 --> 00:43:16,040
Speaker 1: but you might kill one. That's what I always say

705
00:43:16,080 --> 00:43:19,439
Speaker 1: about public land hunting is that you can't be validated

706
00:43:20,239 --> 00:43:23,760
Speaker 1: emotionally by seeing game. I mean really like as hunters,

707
00:43:24,160 --> 00:43:26,000
Speaker 1: like we come back from a hunt and they're like,

708
00:43:26,040 --> 00:43:28,279
Speaker 1: did you see anything? And if you're like, no, I

709
00:43:28,320 --> 00:43:30,680
Speaker 1: didn't see anything. I mean, it just takes the energy

710
00:43:30,760 --> 00:43:33,239
Speaker 1: and dry. You know, you think you're doing something wrong. Man,

711
00:43:33,400 --> 00:43:36,920
Speaker 1: with these public land bears, you've got to And this, honestly,

712
00:43:37,239 --> 00:43:39,640
Speaker 1: this is what I love about it, Myron's I think

713
00:43:39,680 --> 00:43:43,720
Speaker 1: it makes you a better hunter all across your hunting

714
00:43:44,160 --> 00:43:48,680
Speaker 1: is you can't be validated by seeing game, because I'll

715
00:43:49,520 --> 00:43:52,319
Speaker 1: the times I've been successful in public land hunting for

716
00:43:52,400 --> 00:43:55,760
Speaker 1: long periods of time without seeing anything, but then it happened.

717
00:43:56,120 --> 00:43:58,959
Speaker 1: I mean, just you know, so you're not gonna see

718
00:43:58,960 --> 00:44:04,640
Speaker 1: ten bears, you're gonna see you you might see one. Yeah,

719
00:44:04,880 --> 00:44:09,799
Speaker 1: and uh so it really makes you. I think it

720
00:44:09,800 --> 00:44:12,840
Speaker 1: makes you a better hunter. I think it does It

721
00:44:12,880 --> 00:44:15,200
Speaker 1: certainly makes you a more patient hunter. I think it

722
00:44:15,280 --> 00:44:21,120
Speaker 1: allowed It makes you trust your instincts better when you're

723
00:44:21,160 --> 00:44:24,680
Speaker 1: seeing the sign there but not seeing the critter. Uh,

724
00:44:24,760 --> 00:44:26,520
Speaker 1: you know, you have a tendency to kind of doubt,

725
00:44:26,560 --> 00:44:31,880
Speaker 1: well maybe it's moved on or whatever. But classic example, Uh,

726
00:44:32,080 --> 00:44:34,920
Speaker 1: we went in I think it was a weekend before

727
00:44:35,000 --> 00:44:37,360
Speaker 1: the season started. We went in, Uh, some of the

728
00:44:37,400 --> 00:44:41,759
Speaker 1: guys and myself went in and moved stand. One of

729
00:44:41,800 --> 00:44:45,560
Speaker 1: the stands, it was a ladder stand, was in a

730
00:44:45,680 --> 00:44:48,319
Speaker 1: big white oak. And when we got there to move

731
00:44:48,360 --> 00:44:51,759
Speaker 1: the stand, there were white oak liums, fresh white oak

732
00:44:51,800 --> 00:44:55,240
Speaker 1: liums busted all over, laying all over the ground, acorn

733
00:44:55,320 --> 00:44:58,719
Speaker 1: shrap and I'll just lay in everywhere, you know. And

734
00:44:58,800 --> 00:45:00,920
Speaker 1: we got to look in and looking up in this

735
00:45:00,960 --> 00:45:03,399
Speaker 1: big white oak and yeah there were white there were

736
00:45:03,400 --> 00:45:07,080
Speaker 1: green limbs bent over and broke up in it, claw

737
00:45:07,160 --> 00:45:10,440
Speaker 1: marks all up and down the tree. I mean, you know,

738
00:45:10,520 --> 00:45:13,759
Speaker 1: that is a classic. That's a bait site right there.

739
00:45:14,360 --> 00:45:18,000
Speaker 1: I guarantee if a guy you know, found that on

740
00:45:18,440 --> 00:45:22,880
Speaker 1: public land and it was right before the season, he

741
00:45:23,000 --> 00:45:26,200
Speaker 1: could come and hunt that specific tree. And it's not

742
00:45:26,280 --> 00:45:29,560
Speaker 1: like they're just gonna be nocturnal. You know, bears aren't

743
00:45:29,640 --> 00:45:33,279
Speaker 1: nocturnal that time of year. They're feeding every available hour

744
00:45:33,400 --> 00:45:37,200
Speaker 1: they can. So yeah, that specific tree. If I would

745
00:45:37,239 --> 00:45:41,279
Speaker 1: have found that tree on September, yeah, you can bet

746
00:45:41,320 --> 00:45:44,000
Speaker 1: I would have been hunting that specific tree. You know,

747
00:45:44,200 --> 00:45:48,520
Speaker 1: I've seen a black gum like that on multiplicasions. Black

748
00:45:48,560 --> 00:45:50,920
Speaker 1: gum is a really big one, and a lot of

749
00:45:50,920 --> 00:45:54,080
Speaker 1: people don't realize that that black gums throw these little

750
00:45:54,200 --> 00:45:58,879
Speaker 1: grape looking berries and uh man, I tell you what,

751
00:45:58,960 --> 00:46:03,319
Speaker 1: before the acorn to get right, they will blister black gums. Yeah,

752
00:46:03,360 --> 00:46:07,520
Speaker 1: I mean just blister them. Yeah, they love them. It's amazing. Uh.

753
00:46:07,840 --> 00:46:10,000
Speaker 1: I would have never paid much attention to black gum

754
00:46:10,080 --> 00:46:13,719
Speaker 1: until I had just found a couple that looked like

755
00:46:14,400 --> 00:46:17,160
Speaker 1: it looked like a tornado dropped out of the sky

756
00:46:17,480 --> 00:46:21,640
Speaker 1: directly above this black gum. I mean I saw one

757
00:46:21,680 --> 00:46:24,160
Speaker 1: one time that I bet the bear had tore out

758
00:46:24,680 --> 00:46:26,160
Speaker 1: of the limbs out of that tree. I mean it

759
00:46:26,200 --> 00:46:28,799
Speaker 1: had to have affected the life cycle of that tree.

760
00:46:29,120 --> 00:46:31,239
Speaker 1: And uh, I mean it was like a it looked

761
00:46:31,280 --> 00:46:34,160
Speaker 1: like a telephone pole that somebody had just I mean

762
00:46:34,239 --> 00:46:38,200
Speaker 1: just had wore it out. And there were eight piles

763
00:46:38,239 --> 00:46:41,200
Speaker 1: of bear scout underneath that black gum, and probably every

764
00:46:41,200 --> 00:46:44,839
Speaker 1: inch of the tree was at claw marks and there

765
00:46:44,920 --> 00:46:48,319
Speaker 1: was still black gun berries all in that tree. That

766
00:46:48,360 --> 00:46:52,160
Speaker 1: was on October the third, Uh, not this year is

767
00:46:52,600 --> 00:46:56,280
Speaker 1: several years ago, but October the three. They were climbing

768
00:46:56,280 --> 00:46:59,400
Speaker 1: that tree like crazy. And those black gums produce a

769
00:46:59,440 --> 00:47:02,439
Speaker 1: lot more asked than I thought they would. I mean

770
00:47:02,680 --> 00:47:04,520
Speaker 1: they produce a lot. I mean if you were just

771
00:47:04,600 --> 00:47:07,880
Speaker 1: to collect the amount of berries that some of them

772
00:47:07,920 --> 00:47:10,160
Speaker 1: can produce, I think we'd be pretty surprised. And the

773
00:47:10,200 --> 00:47:13,360
Speaker 1: cool thing about black gum too is that you know,

774
00:47:13,440 --> 00:47:15,359
Speaker 1: you might get on a white oak flat and there

775
00:47:15,440 --> 00:47:19,080
Speaker 1: might be a hundred and fifty white oaks within a

776
00:47:19,160 --> 00:47:22,719
Speaker 1: hundred yards of you. I don't know. Black gum are

777
00:47:22,800 --> 00:47:27,040
Speaker 1: are not gonna necessarily grow in groves like that, you like,

778
00:47:27,080 --> 00:47:29,160
Speaker 1: they'll just be like and I'm not saying they won't

779
00:47:29,160 --> 00:47:32,080
Speaker 1: be three or four together, but there don't seem to

780
00:47:32,120 --> 00:47:35,440
Speaker 1: be as concentrated. So if you find one that's really good,

781
00:47:37,280 --> 00:47:40,480
Speaker 1: they can be good. Yeah. I inadvertently, on a piece

782
00:47:40,480 --> 00:47:43,040
Speaker 1: of property that I hunted several years ago, I had

783
00:47:43,160 --> 00:47:47,120
Speaker 1: inadvertently put a bait barrel right next to a big,

784
00:47:47,200 --> 00:47:51,040
Speaker 1: mature black gum. And while I was baiting, you know,

785
00:47:51,480 --> 00:47:53,600
Speaker 1: a couple of weeks prior to the season. This was

786
00:47:53,680 --> 00:47:59,879
Speaker 1: back when it opened October one. Excuse me, I noticed that, Man,

787
00:48:00,160 --> 00:48:02,480
Speaker 1: they're just tearing up this tree. And then it just

788
00:48:02,600 --> 00:48:04,759
Speaker 1: dawned on me to look up. Oh it's a big

789
00:48:04,760 --> 00:48:08,920
Speaker 1: black oh there. And yeah, through berries that year, and

790
00:48:08,960 --> 00:48:10,680
Speaker 1: I think they were eating more out of the tree

791
00:48:10,719 --> 00:48:14,160
Speaker 1: than they were out of the barrels. It's uh. And

792
00:48:14,680 --> 00:48:16,920
Speaker 1: for those of you who don't know what we're talking

793
00:48:16,960 --> 00:48:21,040
Speaker 1: about black gums species, if you look across the landscape

794
00:48:21,160 --> 00:48:24,879
Speaker 1: in the late summer, real early fall, just prior to

795
00:48:24,920 --> 00:48:27,600
Speaker 1: you know, when late off or well, i'd say early

796
00:48:27,640 --> 00:48:31,279
Speaker 1: to mid September, look across the landscape, and some of

797
00:48:31,320 --> 00:48:35,080
Speaker 1: those very first trees you see that are starting to

798
00:48:35,160 --> 00:48:41,839
Speaker 1: turn red are black gums gum trees. So you know,

799
00:48:41,920 --> 00:48:44,279
Speaker 1: if you they turned a little earlier, they turned a

800
00:48:44,320 --> 00:48:48,439
Speaker 1: little earlier than hold their berries something else. Yeah, they'll

801
00:48:48,440 --> 00:48:52,400
Speaker 1: hold their berries after their leaves are gone, because sometimes

802
00:48:53,760 --> 00:48:55,520
Speaker 1: I'll stay on there for a good while if the

803
00:48:55,520 --> 00:48:59,279
Speaker 1: bears don't strip them all up. So you know, if

804
00:48:59,280 --> 00:49:02,120
Speaker 1: you're scouting public land or something like that, and it's

805
00:49:02,200 --> 00:49:04,840
Speaker 1: mid September, you know, and you start to see a

806
00:49:04,880 --> 00:49:08,640
Speaker 1: few trees kind of start turning. Take notice of the

807
00:49:08,680 --> 00:49:14,399
Speaker 1: ones they're starting starting to turn red or orange. Could

808
00:49:14,440 --> 00:49:20,160
Speaker 1: be huge trees talking about you know, diameter on a

809
00:49:20,160 --> 00:49:24,400
Speaker 1: lot of these big mature gum trees. One time, Myron,

810
00:49:24,719 --> 00:49:27,839
Speaker 1: I've never done it. It's what I've wanted to do it,

811
00:49:27,880 --> 00:49:30,800
Speaker 1: but to shoot a bear out of a tree. And

812
00:49:31,280 --> 00:49:36,120
Speaker 1: one time I've actually only seen with my eyes one

813
00:49:36,200 --> 00:49:39,400
Speaker 1: time in Arkansas a bear climb a white oak. But

814
00:49:39,440 --> 00:49:46,200
Speaker 1: it was it was and uh, I was sitting kind

815
00:49:46,200 --> 00:49:48,680
Speaker 1: of on this kind of on the top of this ridge,

816
00:49:49,320 --> 00:49:51,360
Speaker 1: and so you know, the ridge dropped off pretty quickly

817
00:49:51,400 --> 00:49:54,160
Speaker 1: on both sides of me, and so I was you know,

818
00:49:54,160 --> 00:49:56,040
Speaker 1: if you were just looking out straight, you were seeing

819
00:49:56,080 --> 00:49:59,480
Speaker 1: the tops of oak trees about fifty sixty yards away.

820
00:49:59,800 --> 00:50:02,359
Speaker 1: You of things closer you could see the whole trunks. Well,

821
00:50:02,400 --> 00:50:04,840
Speaker 1: I'm sitting there and I hear what sounds like a

822
00:50:04,960 --> 00:50:09,400
Speaker 1: two pound gray squirrel scratching on the bark of a tree.

823
00:50:09,800 --> 00:50:14,400
Speaker 1: And I look over there and above the horizon rises

824
00:50:14,440 --> 00:50:16,920
Speaker 1: this bear. And you know, you know how they climb,

825
00:50:17,080 --> 00:50:19,600
Speaker 1: I mean they use their front legs and pushed down

826
00:50:19,600 --> 00:50:22,520
Speaker 1: and they kind of jump and catch the tree. And man,

827
00:50:22,640 --> 00:50:25,279
Speaker 1: he just comes up out of the horizon, going to

828
00:50:25,320 --> 00:50:27,480
Speaker 1: the top of this wide oak. And I had my

829
00:50:27,520 --> 00:50:30,920
Speaker 1: traditional bow, and I knew he was gonna be distracted.

830
00:50:31,040 --> 00:50:34,160
Speaker 1: It's a great opportunity to shoot one. I mean, I

831
00:50:34,239 --> 00:50:36,480
Speaker 1: knew he was distracted up in that tree. I pretty

832
00:50:36,560 --> 00:50:40,880
Speaker 1: much just grabbed my bow and just went straight towards him.

833
00:50:40,920 --> 00:50:43,960
Speaker 1: And Uh, I kind of I didn't chicken I want.

834
00:50:44,000 --> 00:50:46,040
Speaker 1: I wanted to say I chickened out. I didn't chicken out.

835
00:50:46,239 --> 00:50:49,160
Speaker 1: I just I was If I had it to do

836
00:50:49,239 --> 00:50:51,680
Speaker 1: over again, I would have just not even thought and

837
00:50:51,800 --> 00:50:53,880
Speaker 1: just gone. I got about thirty yards from him and

838
00:50:53,920 --> 00:50:57,239
Speaker 1: started a stalk real slow, and he came down the tree,

839
00:50:57,280 --> 00:51:00,319
Speaker 1: but as quick as he went up. Uh. But if

840
00:51:00,360 --> 00:51:02,680
Speaker 1: he had has stayed up that tree, I mean, I

841
00:51:02,719 --> 00:51:05,359
Speaker 1: was just gonna slip right under it. I should have

842
00:51:06,000 --> 00:51:08,920
Speaker 1: not worried about trying to be stealthy though, because he

843
00:51:09,040 --> 00:51:12,520
Speaker 1: was breaking. He was just making a racket in anyway.

844
00:51:12,600 --> 00:51:16,919
Speaker 1: When he hit the ground, I'm about twenty yards from him,

845
00:51:16,920 --> 00:51:21,160
Speaker 1: and uh. This is where bears are funny on public

846
00:51:21,280 --> 00:51:24,200
Speaker 1: land in areas where they're not used to seeing people.

847
00:51:24,800 --> 00:51:28,960
Speaker 1: Is that bear saw me and didn't spook like a

848
00:51:29,040 --> 00:51:31,880
Speaker 1: deer would have. Like he he saw me, but he

849
00:51:31,920 --> 00:51:35,439
Speaker 1: didn't get my wind, and he just started walking kind

850
00:51:35,440 --> 00:51:38,719
Speaker 1: of away from me, but kind of parallel to me.

851
00:51:39,320 --> 00:51:42,040
Speaker 1: And I started walking with him. I was literally walking

852
00:51:42,160 --> 00:51:44,480
Speaker 1: trying to find an opening, and he would kind of

853
00:51:44,520 --> 00:51:46,880
Speaker 1: crane his neck and look at me over his shoulder.

854
00:51:47,360 --> 00:51:49,719
Speaker 1: And I walked with him for probably twenty yards, and

855
00:51:49,760 --> 00:51:51,640
Speaker 1: he just kept getting further away from me, though, but

856
00:51:51,680 --> 00:51:54,880
Speaker 1: he never just bolted. Now, if he had smelled me,

857
00:51:54,920 --> 00:51:57,279
Speaker 1: I think he would have been gone. He just he

858
00:51:57,440 --> 00:51:59,640
Speaker 1: was just like, what is what are you doing here?

859
00:52:00,360 --> 00:52:03,120
Speaker 1: But now that was a unique experience that I've only

860
00:52:03,160 --> 00:52:07,600
Speaker 1: seen it once, but I've I've heard uh. I actually

861
00:52:07,600 --> 00:52:11,040
Speaker 1: heard it from a guy in Georgia. Uh that that's

862
00:52:11,080 --> 00:52:14,520
Speaker 1: a I mean, it was just random. That was a

863
00:52:14,520 --> 00:52:17,120
Speaker 1: guy from Georgia telling me that that's what they There's

864
00:52:17,239 --> 00:52:19,680
Speaker 1: that I know why it is Their season opens early

865
00:52:19,719 --> 00:52:24,200
Speaker 1: in September, and so they have a lot of climbing

866
00:52:24,239 --> 00:52:27,240
Speaker 1: bears because bears only climbing these oaks before they're falling,

867
00:52:27,960 --> 00:52:31,400
Speaker 1: and so our oaks are gonna be falling late September.

868
00:52:32,000 --> 00:52:35,719
Speaker 1: You know, Sometimes even that it's differs every year, but

869
00:52:35,960 --> 00:52:38,719
Speaker 1: especially the white oaks sometimes they'll The year that I

870
00:52:38,760 --> 00:52:41,920
Speaker 1: saw the climbing bear was actually October. I remember it

871
00:52:41,960 --> 00:52:44,640
Speaker 1: was October the one and so that the acrons were

872
00:52:44,640 --> 00:52:47,799
Speaker 1: still holding on enough that even by then they were

873
00:52:47,800 --> 00:52:51,880
Speaker 1: still climbing. I think that's pretty rare. Usually they're falling

874
00:52:51,880 --> 00:52:57,719
Speaker 1: a little bit before second to third week or so

875
00:52:57,960 --> 00:53:01,799
Speaker 1: of Septembers. Typically sometimes it will be the fourth week.

876
00:53:01,920 --> 00:53:05,720
Speaker 1: That's what you hope for. Yeah, those guys in Georgia

877
00:53:05,719 --> 00:53:09,200
Speaker 1: with a September bear season, they are hunting these bears

878
00:53:09,239 --> 00:53:12,080
Speaker 1: like squirrels. Yeah, I mean they make a ton of

879
00:53:12,160 --> 00:53:15,040
Speaker 1: racket when they climb that they do. You can imagine,

880
00:53:15,080 --> 00:53:18,200
Speaker 1: I mean, you know how much racket of gray squirrel

881
00:53:18,239 --> 00:53:21,040
Speaker 1: makes when you're running around in the bushes. Imagine if

882
00:53:21,040 --> 00:53:25,760
Speaker 1: they're up there breaking branches and breaking climbing up your wrists,

883
00:53:25,880 --> 00:53:29,680
Speaker 1: climbing up and down the tree. And uh. A friend

884
00:53:29,680 --> 00:53:31,759
Speaker 1: of mine was on the stand a couple of years ago.

885
00:53:31,920 --> 00:53:35,200
Speaker 1: He had had shot a bear on our lease, and

886
00:53:35,280 --> 00:53:39,000
Speaker 1: he just went out bow hunting deer the next morning

887
00:53:39,760 --> 00:53:42,239
Speaker 1: and he said, yeah, I was set there and this

888
00:53:43,320 --> 00:53:46,600
Speaker 1: awful racket back by me, and I looked back by

889
00:53:46,719 --> 00:53:48,960
Speaker 1: me about a hundred yards and it was a young

890
00:53:49,000 --> 00:53:51,719
Speaker 1: bear running up and down the tree. Run up one.

891
00:53:51,760 --> 00:53:53,640
Speaker 1: He'd be up there a while and he'd come down.

892
00:53:53,960 --> 00:53:55,960
Speaker 1: He'd go up the next one. He'd be there while

893
00:53:56,000 --> 00:54:00,400
Speaker 1: and he'd come down. And yeah, so they're incredibly agile,

894
00:54:00,480 --> 00:54:07,000
Speaker 1: and trees incredibly agile, but amazing. Well, Maron, Hey, thanks

895
00:54:07,000 --> 00:54:10,280
Speaker 1: a ton for coming and talking with me. It's my pleasure.

896
00:54:10,320 --> 00:54:13,040
Speaker 1: Always glad to talk bear. Man. I could have this

897
00:54:13,160 --> 00:54:16,600
Speaker 1: conversation with somebody like you all the time. We always

898
00:54:16,600 --> 00:54:19,839
Speaker 1: talked about something different. You know, the last podcast we did,

899
00:54:20,360 --> 00:54:22,840
Speaker 1: we talked about bears. But I think we've covered a

900
00:54:22,840 --> 00:54:27,000
Speaker 1: whole bunch of new stuff that's such biology stuff. Yeah,

901
00:54:27,160 --> 00:54:29,799
Speaker 1: this is kind of the behind the sinkings kind of

902
00:54:29,960 --> 00:54:33,839
Speaker 1: bear talks. Yeah, well, I really appreciate it, man, I'm

903
00:54:33,840 --> 00:54:35,480
Speaker 1: glad to be here. Thanks for having to keep the

904
00:54:35,520 --> 00:54:37,600
Speaker 1: wild places wild and that's where the bears live.