Bear behavior

[Bluewhite'ngreen]

Has anyone had their trail cam ripped off of a tree by a bear? I'm wondering whether my scent would cause a bear to do so. I guess is that it may be possible because a bear may have become habituated to the scent of people associated with garbage. When it picked up my scent, it must of been looking for food(garbage)?

[KodiakHntr]

Bears are really attracted to petroleum products, gas oil plastic… Unless you are wiping your cameras down with alcohol wipes and scent killer and wearing rubber gloves there will always be scent on them.

I probably have 1000 pictures of the inside of bears mouths from the last 10 years.

[Bluewhite'ngreen]

Good to know. I'll be wiping down with school wipes from now on. Thanks!

[Hugh Mann]

Not me personally, but I know a guy who had a bear chomp on his trail cams.

[tko]

Yes I have 2 , now on I wear gloves when I set camera up , and Place camera up high tilting downward .still has a smell with gloves but not as bad as bare hands .

[Fallkniven]

I have had many cameras damaged by Bears, its seems to me from watching the (last!) Video that the Bears are scent marking (scratching also) the tree that the Cam is on, so i guess this is some kind of territorial action and the Bear is viewing the Cam smell as alien and in need of its domination!...gets expensive though, i have to say....

[Sitkaspruce]

It's not always scent, they are curious, very curious.

I have had cams bit by bears in bear cases at waist level, up a tree at 15' and every place in between. I have watched them looking around, then see the camera and immediately go to it and start to do what bears do with cams.

This year I had one cam get pulled off the tree, opened and the batteries removed by a bear. The cams still works. Another cam was ripped of the tree and left at the base. What p*sses me off is that they always do it within a week of checking the cam. Never just before I show up after it being in the bush.

But if you think bears are hard on cams, try elk. They rub, blow snot, lick and bite cams if they can find them. They are the real PITA when it comes to cams!

Cheers

SS

[deadlyshot22]

Has anyone had their trail cam ripped off of a tree by a bear? I'm wondering whether my scent would cause a bear to do so. I guess is that it may be possible because a bear may have become habituated to the scent of people associated with garbage. When it picked up my scent, it must of been looking for food(garbage)?

Multiple times. It is quite common.

[Ron.C]

Was quite a few years back, but this guy relocated my camera about 40 meter a couple minutes after this photo was taken. Incidentally, 3 elk crossed infront of this camera 20 minutes before the bear and a deer 35 minutes before.

http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/bear122.jpg