Strange Bear Encounter

[LordGorjax]

So, wednesday afternoon, me and my buddy were out hiking around in region 2 near harrison lake. We decided to take a stroll down a deactivated FSR spur. We hopped off our ATV's locked them up and started down the road. About 60yards or so away from the ATV's my buddy stops to take a piss. He is facing a long sloped area of random rock debris.

He calls over to me, "is that a bear up there?" . I pull out the binos, and sure enough there is a good sized bear that appears to be dead leaning against a rock with its head slumped over it. The eyes were still open, so the jury was out on what exactly this bear was up too.

We are probably about 50-70yards away on the road. So for about 12mins or so, we are taking turns watching this bear with the binos looking for any sign of life. We are making lots of noise, talking loudly. Shouting a couple times. This bear is DEAD still.

We had camped about 1km away or so the previous night, and i remember hearing a single gunshot at 10:45pm. And instantly my brain figured some kind of shenanigins had gone on here that involved this dead bear. After a while we say **** it, and head along down the old road watching the bear the entire way until it was out of sight.

We get to the end of this old closed off road, turn around and walk back to the ATV's.

The bear is gone. What, the , ****.http://www.huntingbc.ca/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=6377&stc=1

Here are a couple more photo's.

http://imgur.com/81OT3oM


Any ideas or opinions i would love to hear.

[LordGorjax]

A couple more photos, the imgur link didnt show, and yes the bear has a big yellow tag on its right ear.

http://imgur.com/w1vV8or

http://imgur.com/u8nEC8l

[scotty30-06]

Either it wins the freeze tag award or there is something else funny going on....any sign of it being field dressed around there....kind of a weird spot for it to be....very weird

[Salmon Belly]

Could be shot but not dead (yet). Unusual behaviour could mean something is wrong with the animal -- sick, injured etc

SB

[LordGorjax]

No signs of any field dressing going on. No spent shells that we could find (we looked) . Also i didnt state, we were only gone from the animal for maybe 20-30mins maximum before we returned and it was gone.

[rocksteady]

Maybe just a heavy sleeper??

[ACE]

Sleeping off the effects of being tranquilized and ear tagged ?

[BRvalley]

I'd guess the effects of recently being ear tagged....or assuming the ear tag is older, and you did hear a gun shot the night before, maybe he was up to no good in somebody's camp and injured as a result

[russm86]

With those big looking ears I'd say he's a younger bear, maybe even first year on his own without mom, which makes them more prone to trouble (looking for easy meals where they shouldn't be) so ear tag could be fresh from just having been tranquilized and relocated due to being a nuisance somewhere else...

[Fisher-Dude]

Betting he has a ketamine hangover.

[325]

I saw a large black bear last weekend with a yellow tag in both ears. What's the backstory behind these tags?? Research??

[Wild one]

Sleeping off the effects of being tranquilized and ear tagged ?

This is a big possibility with the ear tag

also some bears just like to lay in the sun on rocks. And some bears are really dumb lol

[souwester]

I saw a large black bear last weekend with a yellow tag in both ears. What's the backstory behind these tags?? Research??

Your supposed to shoot those ones and mail the whole ear, including tag to Mr Bryce Casavant.

[Rob Chipman]

:-) I was up there last weekend and I'd swear I saw the same bear, but he was moving just fine.

[Rupert Retired]

He's sleeping! nothing like taking a nap in the hot sun. A few years ago I was quadding in a remote spot, there was a bear lying beside the road, with his head on the road. I was past him before I was able to stop, so I stopped and looked back, about 15 yards or so. He was sleeping - there was no way he could have slept through me going past him! So I put my quad in reverse and backed up. At about 15 feet or so, he opened one eye to look at me. I decided to get out of there, which I did. Later he was gone. But I think now he was just asleep in the sun, beside the road. Not spooky, probably never been hunted, used to logging and other traffic.

[rocksteady]

Betting he has a ketamine hangover.


Been there done that... but who hasn't?

[Foxton Gundogs]

Warm rocks both under and behind, sun beating down, my bet would be just enjoying the day. I watched one last year at 92 yds for a good 20 min., he was sprawled out on a stump with no interest in moving. When I passed the spot again he was up but in no hurry to go anyplace. Bears are lazy F*c*s by nature.

[boxhitch]

I'm with you FG. He was just chillaxing

Have seen other critters give little reaction to humans or something else non-threatening, but then as soon as out of sight , they book it.
Its like they feel comfortable as long as they can see something different in their turf.
Once it was with four goats at about 400 yds, watching us walk up a creek for almost 20 minutes, no threat just running perpendicular not getting closer. As soon as we were out of sight behind a bluff for maybe two minutes they got up and walked away.

[northof49]

Sleeping....nice spot for a cat nap

[ROY-alty33]

Popular conception is they have horrible eyesight, if he couldn't smell ya he might not have knew you were even there. Move up the road he caught your scent and booked it.
They do like to sleep in the sun, if they don't see you as a threat no need to move on. I shot one a few years back that laid on his rocky knoll for at least 15 minutes while I watched trying to determine if a shooter or not. He was (well he got shot anyway)....Maybe their mommas didn't raise 'em right.

[Fisher-Dude]

Been there done that... but who hasn't?

Haha, you've led a wild life!

Helped a CO friend dart a muley doe once that was tangled in a wire tomato plant cage. We gave her lots of ketamine so she wouldn't get out on the road on us. About 6 hours later, she finally got steady on her feet and wandered off - usually, it's only an hour or so. As we were leaving, I saw her standing in some rich dude's immaculate lakeshore garden, munching down his flowers.

Did you eat tulips after a k-day, Mike? :-P

[landphil]

Haha, you've led a wild life!

Helped a CO friend dart a muley doe once that was tangled in a wire tomato plant cage. We gave her lots of ketamine so she wouldn't get out on the road on us. About 6 hours later, she finally got steady on her feet and wandered off - usually, it's only an hour or so. As we were leaving, I saw her standing in some rich dude's immaculate lakeshore garden, munching down his flowers.

Did you eat tulips after a k-day, Mike? :-P

Freaking hilarious man!

[srupp]

Hmmm seen black bears in similar resting places..full belly. .warm sun..time for some rest in a position to watch..seen a bear on Spoken Lake rd years ago laid out like a skinned bear rug on top of a large log pile..i stopped , backed up nothing he looked deceased..got out and he raised his head..i got back in and left.

Doesn't seem to me the tag had anything to do with his position, attitude..
Srupp

[caddisguy]

Seen a few bears snoozing this year during the heat of the day, but usually on mossy slopes. The life of a bear involves a lot of eating and napping.

I haven't had time to post them up, but the boar I took this year was snoozing. I watched him for about 45 mins, maybe an hour. The first few mins I thought maybe he was dead, but watching him I noticed he was doing a fair bit of rolling around and stretching. He probably knew I was there, as the wind was all over the place, as had I.

Sometimes bears don't care whether you are around or not. I stood and watched a sow with cubs and took some pics/vids a couple weeks back and the thermals were pushing my scent right down to her. Also had one cross the trail a few yards behind the jeep while I was running it and getting changed for the evening hunt.

On two occasions we have almost been run over by bears that jump up and bolt just as we are about to step on them by accident.

Bears will be bears, even without ketamine. You never know what the will do. Sometimes they are relaxed around people, sometimes they slip out the backdoor when they get wind of you and other times they bolt up the mountain when you are still 100 yards away.

[Piperdown]

Sleeping off the effects of being tranquilized and ear tagged ?

Bingo we have a winner from the greatest Nuck fan on HBC :mrgreen:

[Deer_Slayer]

watched a big ole fat black bear a few years back from about 60 yards..sprawled out on a big boulder having a snooze. Called out to him and made all sorts of racket and he finally woke after 3-4 minutes of intense yahooing..looked at us, got up and yawned and strolled away as if he hadn't a care in the world.

[walks with deer]

I saw one bear knock another bear on conscious...

Quite the seen one swat to the head..

I went and found my uncle when we came back the seized bear got up slowly...poor guy had a rough day as the bullet impacted his shoulder...lol.

[walks with deer]

Daised bear