The neighbor is a wildlife officer and proceeded to share so much I didn't know about bears with me. If you are upset by dead animals, stop reading now. I don't want anyone upset by this post. I have a bit of a different view of this as I grew up with a black bear rug on my wall in my bedroom as a girl. We had 8 kids and didn't have a ton of rooms and my brothers were in the brick basement and we couldn't hang things down there and the house was over 100 years old and didn't have lots of wall space that wasn't windowed to allow light in even to the center of the house. We had the old swinging doors with windows to let the light even into the darkest rooms.
With those windows, sliding doors etc. there wasn't much wall space as the other walls had built in shelving and fireplaces as old homes do. Thus, the black bear my father shot while we lived in Alaska was on my bedroom wall. The head was super close to the light switch and if I reached for the light switch in the night, I would sometimes hit the bear teeth and knock out the plastic tongue.
Having grown up with that bear, when it came time to think about what I would like when my parents passed away, the one thing I wanted from my father, that to me represented him, was the black bear rug. I have four brothers who have hunted with my father for meat to eat most of their lives. I used to go hunting with them and "scare" the deer in their direction as we would all line up and make noise sending the deer towards the hunters etc.
We always ate the meat and I grew up on venison so to me, hunting was a way of life. I never have shot anything and the biggest thing I have killed is a mouse in a trap and even feel a bit guilty about that but hate having a mouse in the house even more!
Imagine my surprise when my dad brought out the bear one Thanksgiving and offered it up in a "pick a number" contest.... I picked a number in my head and about changed it but I always tell the girls, "stick with your first guess" and I won the bear! It has hung in my basement since that time. I know it may be a gross thing for some but to me it is my dad. He has LOVED being in nature his entire life. Most of my memories with my father are jeeping, hiking, camping, vacationing etc. My very first memories are living in Alaska.....
I was also blessed to get the two things I would want from my mother over a few years as I never thought I would get either item either but I bought one she was going to sell to a pawn shop saving it from leaving the family and the other, I paid to fix so in a way I purchased both of those. Anyway, the neighbor taught me many things about bears.
1. Once they are shot, in any heat, they lose their hair and unless you put it right on ice, you can't use the fur / or mount it.
2. When scared, bears run in a straight line. They are like little children and don't look around and turn to avoid semi-trucks on the highway. They think it was scared by someone on a dirt road and it ran right into the highway and under a semi which of course hit the back end of the bear.
3. Even though the bear looks brown, it is a black bear. The bear on my wall is black but this bear looked brown but it is still a black bear.
4. They took a tooth and a chunk of meat to send in for DNA testing as there is a DNA animal database so that if someone is caught poaching, they can then identify where the animal was poached and prove it in court as they have this huge database of DNA. 5. There are bears in my area! Until I saw that bear, I thought they were mostly in the higher elevations and the northern part of my state..... Nope!
6. I thought Bears would stay away from populated areas, such as major interstate highways.... NOT SO. I am glad I didn't know there were bears about here as I would drive a bit more cautiously. I seriously don't know what I would do if a bear ran out in front of my car. A deer, elk, those I have seen all my life, but never have I ever seen a bear. I have been camping where they said bears have been recently but we've never seen one.
7. They have super tiny eyes.... They hunt with smell and hearing and it did have super big ears and a huge nose. I took pictures with my fingers next to everything to give it some dimension and depth but the eyes were super small. I asked the ranger if they could see better at night with the smaller eyes and he said they really do hunt by sound and smell.
8. Even though I have a black bear rug on my wall, I have never seen real ears, teeth, nose and claws/pads on a live bear. Being able to put my hand up next to those things and see how big it actually is, it was a bit intimidating. If that bear hit you upside the head with that pad, you would be across the room. The claws etc are fake looking. Bother the ranger and I thought that the claws looked fake. As in a way, did the teeth, almost plastic looking.
The ranger said he has never had to put a bear down before but they have relocated them in the past. He said they would save the skull / teeth intact to educate kids about bears when the kids go to the camps they host.
I hope this didn't offend anyone but I really looked at it as a learning thing and was surprised at 50 years old how much I didn't know about bears. I tried to take a video explaining all those things I posted above but my camera kept stopping. I ordered a new camera this week and it is due to come today! I am so excited to have a camera that will actually work! So, the video is take four or five of me trying to get a video. I had to make it short and finish before it shut off so I sound rushed and quick but I really took it to try and share that with you. I posted the video but it offended someone online so I thought I would post a link here to the private video so that if you wanted to see it close up, you could but won't actually post the video so that those that may be offended by it won't have to click on the link.I was writing my blog and the videos started playing after my video played and this interesting video documentary came up about a Lion, Tiger, and Bear all sharing the same cage and loving each other. It was really interesting and I ended up spending and hour watching.... Here is a link to see that.
It was so interesting to me to see that up close like that. I hope you have a Blessed and bear free day!
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