Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Last July a South lake Tahoe homeowner shot a bear in his home. No charges were filed. The 'tell' is the jail time claim. Short of a large-scale poaching endeavor, no one is incarcerated over killing even a protected game species. The poster also claims bears are 'protected' in California as opposed to Nevada - but, of course, they're a protected game species in Nevada, too. And both California and Nevada practice a combination of relocation and euthanizing, depending on the circumstances. California DF&G expressly states that bears which are a threat to public safety shall be euthanized [see the link]: https://nrm.dfg.ca.gov/FileHandler.a...=198982&inline
Thanks; that's what I figured. It didn't ring true at all.
i remember in my backpacking days, we decided to go to the Northern part of Yosemite because it was not so crowded. So we set off with our topo maps and backpacks for 5 days and 4 nights in the wilderness. Well, it turns out that the northern part of Yosemite was where they shipped the "bad bears" from the other parts of the park, they relocated them there. So when we checked in with the ranger as was required at the trail head, she told us this nonchalantly and she said we would not only see bears, but they were the "bad bears" and to be aware of that. We were used to hanging our food and practicing bear safety but were somewhat put off when we began seeing displayed along the trail damaged backpacks and slashed gear, left as a warning by previous backpackers.
We saw bears on the trail and gave them a wide berth and the first night we set up camp were visited by bears, circling the tree where we had hung our food, but they left when they couldn't get at it. It went from bad to worse the next day because in addition to the bears, we found that all the water sources on the topo map were simply not there: the streams, the ponds, the lakes, were completely dried up. So our immediate concern was finding water. I remember after several hours hiking and finding dry stream after dry stream, we figured surely the BIG LAKE on the topo map just over the next ridge would have something, so we dragged ourselves up to the ridge and i remember peering over anticipating being able to fill our water bottles (which had been empty for several hours) and seeing.......a big green field. no water in sight.
we always bring water purification tablets for an emergency, and that was the one and only trip we ever used them. we found at the base of a tree a stagnant small puddle, and purified a small amount for each of us. that got us to the next night's sleeping site where we saw the one and only person we ran into the whole trip (except for the ranger). He greeted us with "we got bear" and interviewed us to make sure we knew bear safety, otherwise he said he would go sleep at a different site away from us. however he was satisfied with how we hung our food and decided to stay near us. he walked the perimeter of both our tent sites and peed around the whole edge. when he ran out of pee, he asked my male companion to do the same. he said anything's good to do for safety, so the fellas did their peeing thing.
sure enough before sunrise he says from the next tent "don't come out we got bear" and i peered through the window and there were several bears. we stayed in the tent and we stayed quiet and it was scary. i was so glad we had no food in the tent, no toothpaste in the tent, no tampons in the tent, no cosmetics or deodorant, no nothing. eventually they left, we hit the trail, our buddy on the trail going the other way (we were hiking in, he was hiking out) and by the third night we ready to be gone. a particularly graphic hung on a limb backpack with clawed shredded fabric had us deciding this was not fun anymore, and when we found the mandatory camping area (no such thing as camp where you want, had to use the required tentpad areas) for our third night, we saw that a chain link fence about 8 feet tall had been erected around the site, and notice posted that campers MUST stay in the fenced area due to bear danger at this site.
well we looked at each other and said no way are we sleeping in there, it looked like a prison camp, which was not the wilderness beauty we had in mind, and we decided to just hike out, the whole way out. So there it was close to dusk after a full day hiking with our 30 pound packs and instead of resting, we set off for a grueling 7 hours to hike out, straight through the night, yes in the pitch dark. And since bears are nocturnal we were fully aware we were at risk of running into bears on the trail so we purposefully were noisy the whole hike out, we were hoarse by the time we got out and were back at the car. we talked, we banged pots and pans. we weren't going to rely on the "bear bells" so we were just plain loud.
and it was dark. pitch dark. no lights. in the forest. dark dark. our night vision for both of us was good, and our noise kept the bears away. i heard them at times but we just kept moving and making noise, fueled by fear and a strong desire to get out of there, and running on adrenaline. we spent a goodly portion of time discussing what we would like to eat for a meal when we got to a restaurant, we discussed and planned menus and food items and what would we would each eat, flavors, and how best they would be cooked.
never again will we pick a hike "from a book"
and never again will we hike in Northern Yosemite where the bad bears from the rest of the park are relocated.
When visitors see us moving a bear trap in Yosemite National Park, they often ask: “So…where are you taking that bear?” When we discover a black bear obtaining human food and damaging property in Yosemite, we capture it to identify it and usually attach a tracking device. So, why then don’t we simply relocate the bear to a remote area of the park? Indeed, the National Park Service did that for many years. In recent years we’ve all but stopped this practice here. Why? It doesn’t work.
I have a soft spot for all wildlife myself, its tough to hear about some of these situations.
Not too long ago I found a bear skeleton, a rarity. It was right next to a reservoir where a large wildfire had burned. I actually cried thinking about that poor bear trying to reach the water.
i remember in my backpacking days, we decided to go to the Northern part of Yosemite because it was not so crowded. So we set off with our topo maps and backpacks for 5 days and 4 nights in the wilderness. Well, it turns out that the northern part of Yosemite was where they shipped the "bad bears" from the other parts of the park, they relocated them there. So when we checked in with the ranger as was required at the trail head, she told us this nonchalantly and she said we would not only see bears, but they were the "bad bears" and to be aware of that. We were used to hanging our food and practicing bear safety but were somewhat put off when we began seeing displayed along the trail damaged backpacks and slashed gear, left as a warning by previous backpackers.
We saw bears on the trail and gave them a wide berth and the first night we set up camp were visited by bears, circling the tree where we had hung our food, but they left when they couldn't get at it. It went from bad to worse the next day because in addition to the bears, we found that all the water sources on the topo map were simply not there: the streams, the ponds, the lakes, were completely dried up. So our immediate concern was finding water. I remember after several hours hiking and finding dry stream after dry stream, we figured surely the BIG LAKE on the topo map just over the next ridge would have something, so we dragged ourselves up to the ridge and i remember peering over anticipating being able to fill our water bottles (which had been empty for several hours) and seeing.......a big green field. no water in sight.
we always bring water purification tablets for an emergency, and that was the one and only trip we ever used them. we found at the base of a tree a stagnant small puddle, and purified a small amount for each of us. that got us to the next night's sleeping site where we saw the one and only person we ran into the whole trip (except for the ranger). He greeted us with "we got bear" and interviewed us to make sure we knew bear safety, otherwise he said he would go sleep at a different site away from us. however he was satisfied with how we hung our food and decided to stay near us. he walked the perimeter of both our tent sites and peed around the whole edge. when he ran out of pee, he asked my male companion to do the same. he said anything's good to do for safety, so the fellas did their peeing thing.
sure enough before sunrise he says from the next tent "don't come out we got bear" and i peered through the window and there were several bears. we stayed in the tent and we stayed quiet and it was scary. i was so glad we had no food in the tent, no toothpaste in the tent, no tampons in the tent, no cosmetics or deodorant, no nothing. eventually they left, we hit the trail, our buddy on the trail going the other way (we were hiking in, he was hiking out) and by the third night we ready to be gone. a particularly graphic hung on a limb backpack with clawed shredded fabric had us deciding this was not fun anymore, and when we found the mandatory camping area (no such thing as camp where you want, had to use the required tentpad areas) for our third night, we saw that a chain link fence about 8 feet tall had been erected around the site, and notice posted that campers MUST stay in the fenced area due to bear danger at this site.
well we looked at each other and said no way are we sleeping in there, it looked like a prison camp, which was not the wilderness beauty we had in mind, and we decided to just hike out, the whole way out. So there it was close to dusk after a full day hiking with our 30 pound packs and instead of resting, we set off for a grueling 7 hours to hike out, straight through the night, yes in the pitch dark. And since bears are nocturnal we were fully aware we were at risk of running into bears on the trail so we purposefully were noisy the whole hike out, we were hoarse by the time we got out and were back at the car. we talked, we banged pots and pans. we weren't going to rely on the "bear bells" so we were just plain loud.
and it was dark. pitch dark. no lights. in the forest. dark dark. our night vision for both of us was good, and our noise kept the bears away. i heard them at times but we just kept moving and making noise, fueled by fear and a strong desire to get out of there, and running on adrenaline. we spent a goodly portion of time discussing what we would like to eat for a meal when we got to a restaurant, we discussed and planned menus and food items and what would we would each eat, flavors, and how best they would be cooked.
never again will we pick a hike "from a book"
and never again will we hike in Northern Yosemite where the bad bears from the rest of the park are relocated.
Sounds like a .44 mag and a motion light would be handy.
I have a soft spot for all wildlife myself, its tough to hear about some of these situations.
Not too long ago I found a bear skeleton, a rarity. It was right next to a reservoir where a large wildfire had burned. I actually cried thinking about that poor bear trying to reach the water.
Ugh.
Yeah, that makes more sense, and I think the guy deserved the charges. The bear wasn't in his home when it happened, and if you can't figure out how to keep a juvenile black bear out of your house (long-time rural Alaskan here), you need to move to a city.
Yeah, that makes more sense, and I think the guy deserved the charges. The bear wasn't in his home when it happened, and if you can't figure out how to keep a juvenile black bear out of your house (long-time rural Alaskan here), you need to move to a city.
If a bear breaks into my house or cabin while I'm in there, he had better be wearing his Kevlar vest because I'm shooting the SOB with my .308 rifle or 7.62x39 carbine. I might even use my .30-30 carbine... whichever one was handiest.
Makes sense. I'd wager that the bear would simply find its way back to the area over time or would simply continue with its antics at its new location.
DNA evidence now shows that the 500-pound black bear the public had nicknamed “Hank the Tank” is, in fact, at least three not-so-little bears who have damaged more than 30 properties around Lake Tahoe in recent months.
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife on Thursday said it will soon begin trapping bears in the South Lake Tahoe area to tag the animals and collect evidence for genetic analysis. The bears will be released in a “suitable habitat” and the agency said no trapped animals will be euthanized as part of the project.
The bears are responsible for more than 150 incident reports in the region straddling Northern California and Nevada, including a break-in at a residence in the Tahoe Keys neighborhood last week.
^^^And that is terrible news, as now there are three problem bears to deal with (and all three are probably doomed, as they won't stay in the "suitable habitat" unless it is fenced).
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
