# Are you familiar with Black Bear?



## foxfiredidit (Apr 15, 2003)

Its been a few years since a big one came through here. He was a male and weighed 352 lbs. A transfer truck killed him on the highway. Maybe a dozen years before that, a female was killed by a vehicle maybe a half mile from my property line. Before that, a cub was wacked by a vehicle, but the thing is, no one sees them in the wild, and alive. I've seen rotten logs torn apart but no tracks. 

The biggest river in these parts flows into Florida not that many miles south of me. They say those bears came up the delta into this country. I can't attest to that, I just don't know. 

But on my way to the deer stand this afternoon, I found this. I showed the photos to a friend who says he doesn't know what it is, but its not a bear. He thinks it was someone's horse who left it laying in the trail. I don't know of anyone with a horse anywhere close, or any livestock any where close to here for that matter. Anyway, this is not a pile of fecal matter, its one continuous length of fecal matter about 3 to 4 inches in diameter, then there are smaller ones scattered about the ground around it. 

Is this what I think it is. Fecal matter after I took a stick and tore into was all vegetable with what looked like some seeds of a sort I didn't recognize. I think it is bear scat. Please let me know what you think. The woods are full of gut piles left by deer hunters, and will be until the middle of February.


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## potatoguru (May 6, 2013)

It sure looks like it could be bear to me. Especially if it had vegetable and seed looking things in it. You'll find lots of currant berries and grass in bear scat in eastern Oregon which tells you that a lot of what they eat passes straight through. If you really want to know, you might send this picture to a wildlife biologist for your states fish and game department.


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## Paquebot (May 10, 2002)

Size alone rules out the next most common ones that are dark with seeds and they would be **** or possum. That sure looks like bear scat to me. 

Martin


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## GREENCOUNTYPETE (Jul 25, 2006)

I would forward the picks to state fish and game , like Paquebot said too big for **** but similar diet 

If you are not normally having bear in the are they might like to know


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## foxfiredidit (Apr 15, 2003)

Thanks everyone, I will forward these to the DCNR. For me, its only in passing interest that I pose the question. I would really like to see them again inhabit an old traditional range where they once were plentiful. 

It may be possible that bear come back to this area. With the landscape dotted with game plots in several different kind of greens, and all the gut piles that must be out there. There is sustenance to support some population. I even saw a pair of bald eagles on the river last year...first in the wild for me in this area. 

The wilder the better.

Hope you all have great luck this year !!

fox.


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## simi-steading (Sep 27, 2012)

It seems kinda small to me for bear, but it could have been a small bear.

I have seen a few piles deer have left like that though... It surprised me when I saw the hoof prints around it. that was the only reason I knew it was deer... I figured they must have had a case of the runs or something since it wasn't small pellets..


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## MichaelZ (May 21, 2013)

Looks like horse. Horse droppings have a distinctive odor - sniff and compare. Otherwise it could be bear - kind of like a cow pie but smaller. Other bear sign would be wide flattened out trails and clawed up or broken up apple trees. Deer have pellet droppings and with larger bucks the pellets are clumped, but still pellets - if it is a deer, it is one heck of a large deer. Never seen coyote or dog droppings like this. Coyote droppings would have a fair amount of hair in them.


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## rod44 (Jun 17, 2013)

If it tastes real salty it is a bear.:happy:


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## foxfiredidit (Apr 15, 2003)

> It seems kinda small to me for bear, but it could have been a small bear.


 I'm no judge of animal size by relative diameter of his butt, but for a critter to drop a 4 inch diameter turd, if that's a small one, then I'd have him mounted upside down.



> Looks like horse. Horse droppings have a distinctive odor - sniff and compare.


 I did sniff it, and I have owned probably 12-15 horses over the last 50 years, but could find no similarity in the smell. Actually, didn't smell very good at all...kinda rotten/sour smelling. It looked as though it was a bit greasy. Since there are no houses or farms within 20 miles, and the land is gated...plus no horse tracks at all in the area, I felt I could rule out the horse angle. But yeah, at first glance, that is what I first thought.



> If it tastes real salty it is a bear.


 You know, had I a lime and a flask of Tequila, I might have gone that route!!!
Well, maybe not.


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## jwal10 (Jun 5, 2010)

Looks likely....James

http://www.bear-tracker.com/blackbearscat.html


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## farmerDale (Jan 8, 2011)

Bear stools are usually very loose, they typically do not really even look like dung. IMO it is horse carp. A horse with the runs. 

Typical black bear carp is more crumbly, not a lump(s), with seeds etc. and basically a lose pile of half digested stuff. And when there is a large turdy chunk, the diameter is NOT 4 inches, it is more like an inch max, from my experience...


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## foxfiredidit (Apr 15, 2003)

I'm thinking its gotta be horse as well. You guys know bear better than me, and that seems to be the consensus.

I should have known something was amiss when I saw that pack of Marlboros lying there.


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