close encounters

[mrbb]

OK here is a question for you guys
what's the closest you had wild deer to you??

over the yrs, starting when I was a kid, I used to try to sneak up on critters, and I actually managed to sneak up on them sooner or later, I was that crazy kid that used to crawl into bear dens too and pet a live bear

over the yrs while hunting I have had deer walk up to me and actually smell me with there nose and touch me
always found them close encounters to be very cool

always I guess been amazed at how close they will come, or allow me to at time's

as seems some times critters are as courious as I was

so how close to a live deer have you been
or any high lights of close encounters you want to share with wildlife/

[00buck]

I have had a buck run right at me and have been within arms reach from a fawn

[zachc]

Let me start by saying good luck seeing me in a bears den, unless I'm going in to kill it! But anyways, if you want to count the time we were pheasant hunting and someone jumped a doe and she ran straight at us, if I hadn't stepped to the side at the last minute she would have literally ran me over. I could of reached out and pet her. Closest I've been while deer hunting was a couple small does walked under the old school 8 ft ladder stand I was in I could have stepped off onto their backs.

[mrbb]

Let me start by saying good luck seeing me in a bears den, unless I'm going in to kill it! But anyways, if you want to count the time we were pheasant hunting and someone jumped a doe and she ran straight at us, if I hadn't stepped to the side at the last minute she would have literally ran me over. I could of reached out and pet her. Closest I've been while deer hunting was a couple small does walked under the old school 8 ft ladder stand I was in I could have stepped off onto their backs.

HAHA, I hear you craweling into a bears den is not the brighest thing I have ever done,
but I have ??? interest in bears , maybe not too good for my own good
but over the past 30+ yrs, I have had many many close encounters with bears, helped tag a few with the state yrs back, was friends with one of it not the best bear biologist in the world
and have a long list of people I know that feed bears
cannot tell you how many live bears I have actually touched, hand fed, even kiked a few in the ass for messing my trash cans
I've had to help them out of my fenced in yard many times, they get in and rather them smash my fence down, I go out and steer them to the gate!
never had a single bad experience with a bear to date
still don't recommend anyone do what I have done, or take a big strong animal for granted
but they like most wild things, want nothng to do with humans 99.9 % of the time

from all my yrs and travels, I came to believe there are different types of bears, true wild bears(one that live in mroe remote places and seldom if ever see humans, and then rural bearss, that live arround humans all the time
the wilderness one's would worry me more
rural bears, to me are like all rural animals
they figured us humans out
were no good for anything but food!! LOL
from trash food, to food plots to bird feeders to crops and actual feeders
remove that food, and they would all leave where we live in a heart beat , I think
they have been using us for yrs, and us poor saps of hunters spend millions a yr trying to figure out how to out smart them !! HAHA!
there winning that war I think too!

[mrbb]

well here is a pic of me hand feeding a bear, a small female
she runs my neighborhood a lot
rather friendly bear

2 or 3 times this yr I had to kinda rescue her
as there is a much bigger female with 3 cubs that doesn't like this one at all!
guess the mother bear doesn't like any other bears about with the cubs!
several times now the moma bear has gone after her and chased her up a tree in my yard, and then sat at the base of the tree for over an hr, waiting for her to climb down to I guess beat her up!
so I would(and don't recommend anyone do this) go outside and run the mother bear off, so she could climb down and leave with a beating!
so it seems this small female kinda trust me a little more than a bear maybe should
several times now this yr I have been outside in the yard doing things, and she has come right up to me, and lets me pet her and well just like a big friendly stray dog LOL
I have even had this bear give me a big lick a few times too like a dog!
while working under my trailer, she came along and stuck her nose under the trailer and laid one on me LOL
caught me off guard for sure
but hey at that point what can you do!!?

I again, don't fear bears I do respect what they can do
and I DON"T believe in feeding them either!
I like bears to be wild, as they should be
but in today's rural world, they have adapted to humans and many humans feed them in my area!
never any issue's, but it does happen up this way

I do keep bird feeders and in winter and off and on a corn feeder in the yard, but bears come and go, never a every day week or month deal
they really are travelers having large home ranges

and hey a snack here and there(rarely from me) IMO is NO harm, and made a cool pic to me! sorry poor quality
but just to show you, me and bears get along just fine I guess! HAHA!


http://i1190.photobucket.com/albums/z457/mrbb1/bearcandybar001_zps10027ad0.jpg (http://s1190.photobucket.com/user/mrbb1/media/bearcandybar001_zps10027ad0.jpg.html)


and then here is the moma bear and her cubs, that beats the above bear up every chance she gets! LOl

http://i1190.photobucket.com/albums/z457/mrbb1/IMG_20140522_171626_918_zps804820e4.jpg (http://s1190.photobucket.com/user/mrbb1/media/IMG_20140522_171626_918_zps804820e4.jpg.html)


and again, here on my deck!


http://i1190.photobucket.com/albums/z457/mrbb1/IMG_20140522_171322_898_zpsbad1b0f1.jpg (http://s1190.photobucket.com/user/mrbb1/media/IMG_20140522_171322_898_zpsbad1b0f1.jpg.html)


http://i1190.photobucket.com/albums/z457/mrbb1/IMG_20140522_171259_801_zps65ca9737.jpg (http://s1190.photobucket.com/user/mrbb1/media/IMG_20140522_171259_801_zps65ca9737.jpg.html)

[ranger175a]

That's awesome Mrbb

[zachc]

Sheeesh! That's pretty cool! Living in south western Ohio my whole life I have had little to no experiences with bears so I think that's the big difference, Lol. But I gotta say that would be a big adrenaline rush waking up to that on your deck Ay?

[mrbb]

yeah like all things I guess you get used to them and don't make a fuss after a while
I have had bears in my back yard all my life, live in a very heavy bear area all my life
and again, spent a ton of time learning and being about them

I have had friends here and see bears and get so excited ot scared, and me I walk about the yard with them like there not there
some folks would for sure say I am crazy

but bears very very rarely attack anyone
here in PA's entire history only one person ahs ever been killed by a bear

I tell people this
the most dangerous thing you will do in your life is get in a car/truck
its a proven fact everyone, yes everyone will be in 1 car accident in there life!
yet no one thinks much about getting in a car and going !

we do a lot of dangerous things daily
and getting attacked by a bear is very low on that list

bears are courous critters at times, but in all my yrs, never had one agresive about me
have had a few mother bears huff at me, but I got that, they had young, it wasn't like they were attacking me, just doing what mother bears do
and in all my yrs, I personally found the BIGGER the bear is, the less they care about you, its like they know they are the bigger fellow in the now!
its the very young that don't know what they or you will do, that some times deserve a little extra room, but even these bears tend to run first or up a tree
there first action is ALWAYS IM to flee, as long as they have that option

cannot tell you how many mother bears have walked past me with cubs over the yrs, as soon as they seen me, they took off, never had one want to stand about and make a fuss
even when my dog used to tree them
they always ran first and climbed a tree
I can tell a lot of stories about bear encounters, almost all make me laugh when I think about them too LOL

[mrbb]

well I just heard a crash outside and looked out the window, and there is a bear right now on my deck, looking in my kitchen window LOL
talk about bears and there is one here right now ! HAha!

[mrbb]

here is a couple more pic's of me with wild critters!




http://i1190.photobucket.com/albums/z457/mrbb1/buster331_zps2d27376a.jpg (http://s1190.photobucket.com/user/mrbb1/media/buster331_zps2d27376a.jpg.html)


http://i1190.photobucket.com/albums/z457/mrbb1/100_0041.jpg (http://s1190.photobucket.com/user/mrbb1/media/100_0041.jpg.html)




http://i1190.photobucket.com/albums/z457/mrbb1/184-1.jpg (http://s1190.photobucket.com/user/mrbb1/media/184-1.jpg.html)


http://i1190.photobucket.com/albums/z457/mrbb1/127_zps5e84e60b.jpg (http://s1190.photobucket.com/user/mrbb1/media/127_zps5e84e60b.jpg.html)




and here is a dead bear I found two winters ago now, at first I thought is was sleeping/denning, but turned out to be dead, as I well again had to check it out by walking up to it! LOL



http://i1190.photobucket.com/albums/z457/mrbb1/deadbear004_zps63fc0e9d.jpg (http://s1190.photobucket.com/user/mrbb1/media/deadbear004_zps63fc0e9d.jpg.html)


http://i1190.photobucket.com/albums/z457/mrbb1/deadbear008_zps6d061984.jpg (http://s1190.photobucket.com/user/mrbb1/media/deadbear008_zps6d061984.jpg.html)




http://i1190.photobucket.com/albums/z457/mrbb1/113_zpsbdef374e.jpg (http://s1190.photobucket.com/user/mrbb1/media/113_zpsbdef374e.jpg.html)