Bear Scat and other Tidbits

Went off on a tangent reading someones comments and following to a new blog. Some where in there was a discussion on bears, bear scat, cougers, coyotes etc. I have always loved seeing the "wild" things in their environment. In fact, I use to go bear and boar hunting while in Tennessee. Don't worry, it was always hunters zip and bears winning! In fact, there was a refuge for them and if you were caught in there with a weapon, they would lock you up and throw away the key. Hunting was done with dogs and of course, the dogs could not read the signs and the bears always would head for the refuge with the dogs in hot pursuit. Then we would have to put the weapons in a truck and go in with nada to get the dogs out.

My first encounter with bear scat was on top of a mountain. It was not steaming fresh, thank goodness. In some research they use dogs trained to find bear scat. Bears are primarily herbivores but they have found small deer hooves, etc. in the scat. The researchers have to do a sniff test (what a job) scratch test and sending it in for analysis. Scat analysis can tell them type of bear; black or brown, sex of the bear and what they have been dining on. They do research like this when considering areas to possibly add to a bear population or to see what type of bear may already be inhabiting said area.

The mind is a wonderful thing but mine takes a strange trip now and again.