Black Bear Hunting Series
Re-Published with permission from
Virginia Chapter of American Bear Foundation
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https://www.facebook.com/VABearFoundation
https://www.americanbearfoundation.org/
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The Missouri Black Bear is a hunting/conservation group designed to build a real resource for the serious hunters of Missouri. The Missouri Black Bear is the icon species for conservation.
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This may not all apply to Missouri Black Bear hunting, so use your common sense for each series.
Black Bear Hunting Series
Re-Published with permission from
Virginia Chapter of American Bear Foundation
Follow them on facebook
https://www.facebook.com/VABearFoundation
https://www.americanbearfoundation.org/
These are a series originally done by Unbranded Outdoors and shared by Old Dominion Black Bears. It lays the basics for what the black bear is. The other parts of this series and the ones to follow are designed to help make you a better bear hunter by knowing the incredible animal we chase.
Part 3 of Series - Scouting
Scouting for bear often means scouting first for areas that bears are likely to be using – and during the season in which you can hunt them. Bear are, above almost all else, a creature driven by their stomach; they are food motivated and largely food focused. Find the food, and you will find the bears. Recall from the earlier segments about bear biology and habits, and about the seasons in which bear hunting is possible in Virginia (though, if you are in another state, adjust accordingly), and think about what bear are doing when you can chase them. Food sources change over the course of a year, and with them the locations and the activities of bears. A bear right now in July in Virginia might well be feasting on various berries and digging yellow jackets. In October or November, both of those food sources are gone or nearly so and the bear will not be where the July berries are found.
So, what food sources will a bear key in on during the fall hunting season and how do you find them? Bear will, of course, eat almost anything. That is especially true during the period of hyperphagia each fall. Late standing corn is a food source that is heavily impacted by bears, and one that causes as much human-bear conflict as anything else. If you can find a farmer in your region that grows late corn, odds are you have a farmer that has problems with bears. Access might not be possible but identifying the food source is critical for you to start developing a hunting strategy for the bears that are using that corn field. Corn that is being fed on by bears will be mashed flat in the field, almost like a huge snail shell pattern. This will be clearly visible from the air (by plane or drone), and mostly so by tractor. Bear prints and scat will be evident, and the sheer scope of the damage goes beyond any other animal in Virginia is capable of doing. The trails going to and from the corn fields will be easy to see (think of a “yellow-brick road” paved with “bear bricks”). A walk of the perimeter of a cornfield being impacted by bears will leave little doubt as to their presence.
However, bear will leave even standing corn for other food sources, and especially if the corn fields start being harvested or have increasing hunting or human pressure. There are three primary hard mast food sources that bears will key in on during the fall hyperphagia: acorns, beech nuts, and hickory nuts. While bear will eat any acorns, they – like most other animals – prefer the acorns lower in tannins. Every animal in the Eastern woods loves to eat white oaks and bears are no exception. White oak crops are an every-other-year rotation during the best cycles, and the good years for white oak crops have become increasingly scarce. When white oaks are dropping, look for bear activity in the area.
Beech nuts are a more frequent food source, and one that bears will feed on with abandon. Bear will mostly concentrate on beech nuts that have fallen, snuffling along and snacking them up individually, or laying down and raking them with one paw into a pile against the opposing leg. The later gives a very unique pattern in the leaf duff, almost as if a man had been raking leaves slowly with one foot as if looking for something lost under the litter. Beeches are easy to see most year-round with their unique “elephant skin/leg” bark and trunk, and during the late winter and early spring as they hold the dead leaves from the previous fall until new leaves push them off. Find beeches and mark those areas on your maps. When beeches are producing, any bears in the area will find them.
Hickories are a food source that generally only bear, squirrels, and chipmunks will utilize. The rodents will chew holes in the husk and shells to get to the meat inside. Not bears; they crush and sheer off the shells like a giant nutcracker, leaving small slivers of hickory shells – and lots of them. A good producing hickory stand will draw bears for miles, and they will hit those groves until the hickories are gone each fall. They feed on hickories in the same fashion as beeches, just with greater noise accompanied.
While hard mast forage can last an entire fall and even into the winter or early spring, soft mast is much more fleeting. It is also much more of a magnet for bears, and a soft mast crop will draw bears from great distances for the short window of feeding opportunity provided. Soft mast, like apples, pears, peaches, persimmons, and cherries, are very high in caloric value and very high in flavor; two things a bear will take over anything else when the opportunity arises. Orchards and abandoned apple or pear trees are a favored food source, and just like with the corn farmers if you can find an orchard grower with late season crops, you will find bears. Fruit trees perhaps more than any other, but you can find it with oaks and beeches as well, can be severely damaged by bears as they climb into the tree and then break off the branches folding them back into a “bear nest” in order to sit in one spot and feed on the branches pulled to them. In orchards, this damage is obvious. In the woods, it might not be as obvious by sight as it is in an orchard, but you can often hear the bears if they are feeding this way – because a 200-plus-pound animal acting like a giant squirrel is not quiet. Wild cherries and black cherries, along with persimmons, are a great early season (into mid-October) food source for bears, and they will shift off of almost any other food source to get those fruits before the birds, opossums, raccoons and foxes clean them out. It’s a short-lived food source because of the pressure, but a great one to know of it they are in your area. If you find these in your area, mark them on your maps and be sure to check them for fruit production each year and then see if you can time your hunting around their fruit drop. It won’t be an every-year thing most likely, but when everything aligns it can certainly be worth the effort to focus on those trees when the fruit is ripe.
Bears will also feed on insects year-round, tearing apart logs to get at the adult and larval stages. While this is not a food source a hunter can key in on, the presence of overturned rocks and logs, or shredded logs, is a clear indication that bear have been in the area. Other sign will have to narrow down how recently but knowing that bear have been there is part of the puzzle. Of course, the best foraging areas for bear are ones that have a variety of favored food sources in close proximity. Knowing which food sources are preferred, and how they are used, can help you narrow down from the one-off spots with a sporadic or isolated food source to areas that have a variety and consistent presence of food.
Water is another key factor in hunting bear, and especially early in the season, and one that is too often overlooked. While deer get most of the water they need to survive from the forage they consume, that is not the case with bears – bears need to take in water in addition to their food regularly in order to stay hydrated. Bear will water before and after feeding each time. During hyperphagia, that can be several times per day. Bear will also seek out water when it is hot, to drink and to take a dip or a dunk to cool off. If you can identify water sources with deeper pools near a preferred fall food source, your odds of finding bears increases substantially. The same goes for secluded pools of water well back into the woods in or around thick cover where a bear might be able to get up and water before or after feeding elsewhere, and to cool off midday. Bears can and often will travel great distances between food sources, and between food and bedding. However, they will rarely travel to or from a food source without at least one good place to water. A water source that is secluded, and especially one that might also be along – or itself a – travel corridor, near a seasonally-preferred food is a priority to check for bear sign and use.
Use these tips to identify areas to scout, and then use the tips that follow to narrow down where you should focus your efforts.
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