Black bear question?

[nc.hunter]

Hey my fellow hunters, I live in forsyth county,nc. just hour from va. and even though i am that close to the mountains according to all the wildlife biologists in my area they say that the closest bear sightings were in surry county about 2 hours away. Me and my younger brother have found tracks about 7 1/2 inches! and all of them had claws imprinted into them.And these were not in red mud, but in firm soil! Theres about 750 acres of heavily wooded hills around my house. So I believe i may have one. Ill post a footprint of a bear track i have. I asked you because you live in nc. too. thanks,nc.hunter. Tell me what you think.



sorry its so blurry.

[SwedeSteve]

Too blury to tell, but it looks proportionately close...

[Brother Bob]

I shrunk it down to 50%. Yeah, that's a bear track. Be careful around there!

[Windwalker]

Take care, he may move on out of the area but for safetys sake assume he is still out there and be prepared.

[7mmremmag1995]

take your rifle just incase.

[mitch_mckee]

I lived in the Durham/Chapel Hill area for a long time.

I remember there was a little black bear captured running around Greensboro and that's a ways from the mountains.

[7mmremmag1995]

theres one in central ky and we are nowhere near the mountains.

[mitch_mckee]

Eastern Black Bear are a fairly timid lot. About the most you get to see of them is a rump heading off through the woods at high speed. On very rare occasions, usually when a sow has a cub around, somebody gets mauled, and even rarer, killed. Even these exceptions are almost always limited to The Smokies, where rangers relocate problem bears out of the tourist areas to the hiking trails where they constantly entertain passing backpackers.

. I agree that I'd not want to be the long odds exception, but you are in more danger in falling to your death around here.

[Wingwiper]

Mitch

I agree, I live in a heavily populated Black Bear area and it is EXTRMELY rare for a Bear to attack a human, there are only two cases that I can recall in my whole life in this area. One a fella was chased up a tree and his boot was torn a bit by a Bear in hot pursuit, but the Bear quickly lost interest and fled. I don't have the facts on the other, but it happened several years back. Black Bear, at least in the Northeast are very wary and timid and will go out of their way to avoid human contact. I have spent a lot of time in the woods and it is a rare sighting to see a Bear even in an area where it is suppose to be the largest population of them.

Small Bear (250 to 350) leave BIG Tracks, about the size of a small dinner plate. I have never seen a Bear track in Alaska, and I am sure them Big guys leave some awesome tracks.