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Thread: Hunting bears …. Why do we hunt them?

  1. #31
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    Re: Hunting bears …. Why do we hunt them?

    Some good points in your post Ambush and what you’ve said is what we all need to be saying.
    A bear left where it lived out it’s life is not wasted.
    How many calf elk, moose, caribou or deer fawns would a bear carcass compensate for?
    Im not advocating that we leave bears …it should be hunters choice and taking “all” edible portions home shouldn’t be a barrier.
    Hard fact is …. not all bears are edible and I’ve seen a few with the hides off.
    It doesn’t make sense to haul a bear out of the bush that’s unfit for human consumption just to feed the scavengers at the local landfill.
    Like I said in my OP ….politicians are questioning the “hunters hunt bears to eat”.
    We need to do our homework and change our narrative.
    Another comment made by that same NDP Minister was pertaining to the wolf reduction/caribou recoveries.
    “we’re doing wolf control as quietly as we can …. I remember what you told me years ago about shoot, shovel & shut up”.

    ​There is hope.

  2. #32
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    Re: Hunting bears …. Why do we hunt them?

    We also have to accept that this is mostly independent of what the specific group known as Hunters wants or says. We have a role in publicity and outreach, but the decision to hunt or not grizzlies (and ultimately all large preds) will be with individual Native Bands. Those that want it will have it, those that don't will make that call too. Their reasons will not be debated. Co-management is probably better understood in terms of escaping scrutiny of urban voters. Just a big shrug and say "The Knowledge Keepers said so". Off the hook.

    When or whether that eventually translates to a resident hunt remains to be seen. Some of the bands that will allow a hunt certainly don't need the money bad enough to be selling a $100 grizzly tag to a resident. You better be prepared to pay many times that amount. Or the need and desire to substantially reduce the bears numbers must be apparent to them. I can foresee Bands having their own LEH for resident hunters as they manage "their" resource.

    I used to get very angry about the salmon fishery, nets and abuse and with the obvious handing over the control to Band Coalitions. But now I just think, could they do any worse then the DFO and Ottawa's bungling woke beauroucrats. I'm starting to look more at provincial wildlife management the same way. Worst case scenario is total chaos and I won't have rules to follow either.
    I harvest carrots. I kill animals.

  3. #33
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    Re: Hunting bears …. Why do we hunt them?

    Quote Originally Posted by bearvalley View Post
    Looks like some are doing some thinking.
    Seems most agree the hunt should come back with rules that the hide and meat is retained and used.

    Now the kicker is that this province is headed to co-management of wildlife.
    Any politician or government staffer will tell you that.

    First Nations will be the driver if the grizzly hunt re-opens.
    Some First Nations will not want the hunt back due to ties to the bear viewing industry and others will want the hunt because grizzlies are impacting ungulate numbers that are hunted for food and are becoming a threat to safety.
    No one is going to reinstate the grizzly bear hunt because licensed hunters want to “eat grizz”.

    I believe, we need to regroup our thinking and get this right.
    Here’s my points:
    - an Apex predator such as the grizzly bear cannot be left “ untouchable” if wildlife management for other species is to take place.
    -we need to get inventory numbers of what’s wanted on the landscape and manage “all” species to the best of our ability so that those species remain in sustainable numbers.
    -if/when a grizzly hunt re-opens it should be managed with population unit numbers in mind and if a sow or two get shot…so be it….to only target boars is a sure fired way to increase grizzly numbers.
    -pack out the hide…pack out the meat ….whatever it takes but that said maybe some local level input on utilization should come into play here. With co-management being the new key word….we might be better off to listen to what the new “other half” of the management team has to say on what we should and shouldn’t have to do.

    Here’s something most of you don’t know ….Grizzly bears are still getting CI’d in BC.
    They are still getting tanned and done up by taxidermists.
    Only thing is licensed hunters are shut out.

    Maybe under “co-management” we will be able to hunt G bears again ….but it won’t be by the whim & will of the emotion based public or by telling the world we eat “blueberry smoked grizz”.

    And yes….some grizzlies are edible…others….
    I concur............

  4. #34
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    Re: Hunting bears …. Why do we hunt them?

    How often do you find a 'shot and left' bear? I've seen moose and deer on several occasions, but never a bear.

    Reporting is the problem, IF we did like the FNs and quit telling them how many we kill they would have nothing to bitch about. They would know we were hunting, and the odd one would see a dead animal but they couldn't stand up there and say killing 500 bears a year is wrong, evil, twisted and should be stopped because it's inhumane. Like the wolf cull/shooting from choppers, if they ask just look at them and grin quit telling govt as they release the info under freedom of information.

  5. #35
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    Re: Hunting bears …. Why do we hunt them?

    Quote Originally Posted by Ambush View Post
    What happens to a bear (grizzly or black) when it dies or is killed in the wild without human intervention? Is it "wasted"?

    Personally, I believe it should be required to leave the meat of a spring bear in the bush. Maybe be allowed to take a hind quarter. Other preds will eat that easy meal rather than risk taking a calf. Look up "diversionary feeding for predators and calf survival". Physiologically I think you could sell that aspect easier to non-hunters because you're "forcing" hunters to do something good for the wildlife population overall. Hunters have to give up something. The Pacific Wild and their ilk have been hammering against the "but I eat it" lament for years and that reasoning has been sunk and even has the opposite effect now. Nobody "has to hunt" to feed themselves and especially the glamour specifies.

    You have to sell it as good for wildlife and it helps with the optics if hunters have to give up something (the meat) and more "natural' as in they die in the bush and the meat becomes the Great Circle of Life. Disney and The Lion King can help us with that. People listen to Disney way more than us or science.

    I'd rather not leave fall bears in the bush because it just fattens up preds for winter survival and the calves are mostly safe from bears by then anyway. But in light of the above, that won't fly. I'd present that as the "Compromise".
    You seriously think that hunters shouldn't be allowed to take home spring bear meat? I couldn't disagree more. If I couldn't eat bear meat I most likely would not hunt them. Bear meat is my family's absolute favorite wild game meat. Why on God's green earth is a hunter like you floating the idea of taking away more hunter rights? (the right to take home spring bear meat)? To appease the Anti's? WTF man? Holy cow.

    Hunters should never be advocating for taking away other hunters rights - the government doesn't need any help from us. They're doing a pretty good job kowtowing to whatever the Anti's want already. They want us to eat our own - how you don't realize this is beyond me

    Many years ago I was fortunate enough to try some interior Grizz meat that had been feeding on blueberries (not salmon) and it was just as delicious as any black bear I've eaten. We need to bring back the Grizz hunt because they're quickly losing their fear of humans and their numbers are seriously increasing almost everywhere in this province. Its beyond ridiculous
    "It is the first responsibility of every citizen to question authority." - Benjamin Franklin

    "The further a society drifts from truth the more it will hate those who speak it" - George Orwell

  6. #36
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    Re: Hunting bears …. Why do we hunt them?

    Quote Originally Posted by Harvest the Land View Post
    You seriously think that hunters shouldn't be allowed to take home spring bear meat? I couldn't disagree more. If I couldn't eat bear meat I most likely would not hunt them. Bear meat is my family's absolute favorite wild game meat. Why on God's green earth is a hunter like you floating the idea of taking away more hunter rights? (the right to take home spring bear meat)? To appease the Anti's? WTF man? Holy cow.

    Hunters should never be advocating for taking away other hunters rights - the government doesn't need any help from us. They're doing a pretty good job kowtowing to whatever the Anti's want already. They want us to eat our own - how you don't realize this is beyond me

    Many years ago I was fortunate enough to try some interior Grizz meat that had been feeding on blueberries (not salmon) and it was just as delicious as any black bear I've eaten. We need to bring back the Grizz hunt because they're quickly losing their fear of humans and their numbers are seriously increasing almost everywhere in this province. Its beyond ridiculous
    I think you are right about that. There are 5and 6 year old grizzlies that have never had a threat of being hunted. This will be a problem very soon. Making decisions to end that hunt on emotion and political pandering means that those that made that decision gave no thought to the repercussions.
    "A true conservationist is a man who knows that the world is not given by his fathers, but borrowed from his children." John James Audubon

  7. #37
    Join Date
    Mar 2008
    Posts
    14,707

    Re: Hunting bears …. Why do we hunt them?

    Quote Originally Posted by bearvalley View Post
    Some good points in your post Ambush and what you’ve said is what we all need to be saying.
    A bear left where it lived out it’s life is not wasted.
    How many calf elk, moose, caribou or deer fawns would a bear carcass compensate for?
    Im not advocating that we leave bears …it should be hunters choice and taking “all” edible portions home shouldn’t be a barrier.
    Hard fact is …. not all bears are edible and I’ve seen a few with the hides off.
    It doesn’t make sense to haul a bear out of the bush that’s unfit for human consumption just to feed the scavengers at the local landfill.
    Like I said in my OP ….politicians are questioning the “hunters hunt bears to eat”.
    We need to do our homework and change our narrative.
    Another comment made by that same NDP Minister was pertaining to the wolf reduction/caribou recoveries.
    “we’re doing wolf control as quietly as we can …. I remember what you told me years ago about shoot, shovel & shut up”.

    ​There is hope.
    GOOD response Mike ! RJ

    By the way any one know why " bearvalley " was banned - i see nothing out the the ordinary ! just wondering ? RJ

  8. #38
    Join Date
    Nov 2022
    Posts
    51

    Re: Hunting bears …. Why do we hunt them?

    A lot of people throwing around strong opinions, all based on anecdotal evidence. How about we recognize that we don't have a very solid idea of grizzly or ungulate population numbers, we can roughly guess at best. Comparing to the 1800s makes little sense, because the prey numbers were also different as was the landscape.

    I see both sides of the argument. There is logic in balancing the harvest of predators and prey. On the slipside, humans/hunters haven't been good at managing predator populations historically. Look at Eastern Canada, where wolves and cougars were hunted to extinction. I personally have no strong opinion one way or another, because I haven't seen enough evidence/information to be for or against it.

    I will take a legal predator given the opportunity. Because it makes sense to me.
    Last edited by KootenayKiller; 09-21-2023 at 09:22 AM.

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