bear dens

[kyhareraiser]

can someone tell me what are signs of a bears den.. i found a heap of dirt that is prob. 4 to 5 monts old (i'm guessing and behind it is a large entrance below a rock cliff..all vegetation for about 50 yards has been eaten to the ground ,,,,,,,,just wonderin

 

[nfhjr62]

Several years ago my father got a phone call from Gary Alt the Pa Game Comm. bear guy wanting to know if he and or family were going to deer hunt this year from his s cabin as there was a bear denning under it.
Seems some one had borrowed his extension ladder and not closed the access door and so a bear found the open door and had twin cubs there he knew this as the bear had a radio collar on it and he had checked the bear two weeks ago and he would move it if we were going deer hunting that year, he moved the bear and twin cubs two days later.

 

[winmag]

Look around for large trees nearby with deep claw mark scratches in them. If there's trees marked like that, then you may be onto something. However its pretty darn early for a bear to be near a den, so the grass being gone....? I dunno..... If it was 2-3 months from now, then oh ya.

Obviously something is using it, so be carefull. Maybe set up a trail cam.

 

[LoneTraveler]

Bears have dens they will hibernate in. And some in milder weather will build what the the old bear hunters called a storm bed. Just some leaves raked up in a covered place under a fallen tree trunk or in a tree top that has fallen or cut when the tree was in full leaf.

If you find a den where a bear is going to hibernate, Right before the weather turns bad, Around the den there will be many piles of bear dodo. When a bear gets ready to hibernate they empty their digestive system. Just a little green liquid in their stomach.
When I worked bear country as a wild life officer, West Virginia was running an extensive bear study. They asked hunters to remove and return reproductive organs from all female bear legally killed to the Wildlife Section. I had to remove them from road kills or illegal kills myself, And turn them in.
We had to collect the small tooth behind the canine teeth, Weight and sex of all bears checked in my area, And send it to the wildlife operation center. I dealt with a lot of bears in the 15 years I worked the area.