[Ptaylor]

in reply to: AR opener… #33312

That’s sweet dude!

[Ptaylor]

in reply to: The 2013 Season Bulletin Board #31206

Congratulations Skinner and Reddod and those others with tags filled!

Its been kind of an odd season here for me. I had some really early season hunting in July/August, then cause I have two deer tags went down and got a buck for an early rifle hunt. Bow season at home opened after all that. I took a friend out looking for bears, he didn’t get a shot off, but I got the worst case of poison oak I’ve ever had! ended my bow season 2 weeks early. The general season opened last weekend and I have an archery only deer tag and a bear tag. But have been taking new guys out rifle hunting. Yesterday was the first day I’ve been out with a bow in my hand, by myself in almost a month, and it felt great! I stalked in to 30 yards from these two yearling or 2 year old sibling (I think) black bears, but got busted eventually. It was great fun. This is also the first season up here for me where we’ve had rain in September, which is great because its usually really hot. White oaks are dropping their acorns and the bears are getting into them now, so that will be fun for a month.

Best animal sighting for me so far this year is a Fisher! He came tearing down this stunted oak tree right above my head and tore off down the hill. It was all just a flash of grizzled brown color, but form the size there was no mistaking it.

Its amazing how time flies. Enjoy the rest of your season everyone!

[Ptaylor]

in reply to: Killed a Beautiful Bear Today! #24693

Hey that’s great man! Sounds like a good workout back up the hill too! Awesome.

[Ptaylor]

in reply to: The 2013 Season Bulletin Board #59676

Hey keep ’em coming! This is getting me through the long hours of school during the week! Sounds like great fun!

[Ptaylor]

in reply to: The 2013 Season Bulletin Board #55333

Hey this sounds like a great idea. You’re having great fun already Bruce!

Today my friend and I found the first bear I’ve seen since the season started. He was able to follow it and get to within 30 yards. But the bear figured out what was going on and disappeared. It was great fun to watch, and was his first close encounter and possible shot opportunity with a black bear.

[Ptaylor]

in reply to: Sitka spruce and EFOC, failed experiment #40698

Dave,

Thanks for doing all this research before I went and burned a bunch of $ on the sitka spruce (course now I’ll just spend it somewhere else!). I’m going to shoot the carbons this year, and after hunting season is over start experimenting with woods again. please keep us updated!

preston

[Ptaylor]

in reply to: Getting ready for the first camp!…and best! #40686

My wilderness hunting location just caught on fire yesterday. There’s other areas to hike in to hunt, I just don’t know them very well. I know the fire’s good, but I spent 3 days every weekend hunting for a month and a half last year getting to know this place, and I feel like I was starting to understand how it works up there. I think most of my hunting will be day trips or overnights this year now.

[Ptaylor]

in reply to: Bear Scouting Pics #40678

Its pretty magical looking for bears here in northwestern CA. They are probably my favorite animal to look for throughout the year hunting or not. Right now there are blackberries, huckleberries, salal, currants, gooseberries, and more are ripening. There are 5 types of oak trees that ripen in succession, so that they will be eating white oak acorns and deer oak in september and in December there will still be tan oak acorns green on the tree. When the salmon run they’ll be down in the creeks feeding. And then there are all the pine nuts. I’m not sure what the numbers are for this location, but it seems like the density is really high. I’ve never lived somewhere like this, and seen so many bears.

Like you said, Etter, I often hear them first then try and stalk. Its pretty thick here and you can’t see too far usually. Sometimes I sit near feeding locations and wait for them to show up and then stalk. There really fun to stalk, cause I’m terrible at stalking and deer always pick up on me, but bears I have a fair chance so long as I’m down wind.

I’ll hopefully have some stories to tell soon. And I’d love to hear others adventures as the fall progresses!

[Ptaylor]

in reply to: Bear Scouting Pics #39453

Man you’re doing better than me! Today was opening day here. I did a 4 hour sit over an old orchard for sunrise, then 3 hours over blackberry bushes for the sunset. Didn’t see any bears! Oh well, back at tomorrow!

[Ptaylor]

in reply to: Cougar tips? #39448

Sounds like the point your trying to make, Etter, is that if some cougars have to be killed, why not let hunters do it. Is that right? I think that is a good point, but the hard part would be getting the hunters to randomly kill the depredating cats.

I don’t know why they do it, if its due to overpopulation or hunger. For wolves, most biologists agree that cattle killing is a learned behavior and can be taught to or forgotten by a pack of wolves if members of the pack that know cattle are food are introduced or die. There’s a lot more to learn about predators and their prey selection for sure.

You’re right about CA, too. The DFW has a tough job, because if they try to change a management plan, then it goes up for public review. And there a number or organizations just waiting to sue them. The reason bear/bobcat hounding wasn’t put on a ballot initiative was because they told the governor that if he didn’t sign the bill, then they would make a proposition to ban ALL use of dogs for hunting, including for birds. The DFW was so pissed about losing their ability to manage cougars that now there really isn’t any plan for them. Its a tough spot for DFW, hunters, and wildlife.

[Ptaylor]

in reply to: Cougar tips? #37984

Handirifle, I’m just so used to being on the defense automatically when predator hunting is brought up. I forgot how great of a group of people we have here.

I contacted a friend of mine who has just completed a cougar study in northern CA over the past 4 years. He brought up a few interesting points.

First, his take on depredations is that the problem cat is an individual with a specialization of some kind of prey (like previously mentioned with the bighorn sheep), and if you remove that cat you remove the problem. However, most of the recent attacks on people in CA have been juvenile cougars, and he couldn’t explain that. He did mention that over the past few years there have been 7 cats killed for depredation on one family’s ranch near Santa Cruz. This family has done nothing to help deter the cats (like putting their goats in an enclosure at night) and would like it if Wildlife Services just killed all the cougars. Which brings us to the next point.

If cougars are opened for hunting, then they will (should be) managed as all game species are. Simply put, the principles behind this are to keep the population below the carrying capacity of the land, so that there is an abundance of food and thus lots of offspring. In his words, “But if it was actually “managed” with maximum sustainable yield or something the population would actually increase. That is why there are more lions in Idaho or Washington than in CA.”

So the question I would ask you guys is, do you want a cougar hunting season specifically to reduce the number of cats? Or do you want them to be managed, by hunting, with a healthy population for the long term? And how do you think hunting will solve the problem of depredations or attacks?

[Ptaylor]

in reply to: Cougar tips? #36663

Firstly I’d like to say that I am not against ALL predator hunting. I support fair chase hunting of species whose population is high enough to support the loss and the scientific-based management of those species. I don’t want this to turn into a shootout, we’re all on the same team.

I don’t think its as simple as just allowing a hunting season for cougars. That alone will not solve the problem. For example, take Alberta, they have a very liberal cougar season, as well as still trapping, shooting, and poisoning wolves. Yet, there is still a huge livestock depredation loss to predators there. Clearly hunting alone is not doing anything to deter predators from eating cows.

Again I’m not saying we shouldn’t hunt cougars, that is a different topic, but whether or not we hunt cougars is not the real issue. The issue is how we operate when sharing the land with predators. For example, when I worked in Alberta, a private ranching operation annually dumped a thousand head of yearling cattle in a valley where a wolf pack was known to den. Instead of simply grazing the yearlings in a different area during the spring denning season, they would get the provincial government to come in and shoot all the wolves. Then the wolves would come back. A cycle. But no change in behavior.

Hunting of predators can be beneficial, like Handirifle said, when a cougar specialized in killing desert bighorn sheep, that one cougar was removed and so was the localized problem.

But as I stated in an earlier post, often the problem is the person and not the animal.

Again, I don’t want to start a shootout. I like discussing this because its a difficult problem and we don’t have all the answers. I enjoy reading your posts (Etter1, Handirifle, etc…) because it makes me think think about my presumptions and ideas and construct better ones.

preston

[Ptaylor]

in reply to: Cougar tips? #36272

Etter1,

It is commonly stated that more cougars are killed now that hunting has been banned. However, it all depends what year you choose to look at. Some years there were many more cats killed by hunters than currently killed for depredation, and some years it was more even, and some years there were less killed by hunters. It not as simple as more now than then.

I don’t know enough (and I’m not sure that anybody does) to say that its only the lack of hunting that has resulted in increased cougar attacks in CA. However, I can speak to the fact that around the urban centers, LA, San Diego, San Fran, and Sac there are millions of people that live in, hike, bike, horse ride, and recreate through cougar-occupied habitat every day. The extremely low frequency of attacks, with this many people in cougar habitat, is a testament to their (cougar’s) unwillingness to attack us. If they did truly see us or our pets as a food source, then we’d have a problem the likes of which hasn’t been seen since Jim Corbett’s time.

Shane,

It does sound like those cougars present a real threat. Its going to be tough getting all three. Once they get fired at the other two will be pretty sneaky. Especially if a trapper has come in and couldn’t get them. Try to shoot the mother first. Good luck.

[Ptaylor]

in reply to: Cougar tips? #35516

Shane,

I don’t know any of the details, but since the property owners are reluctant to call the state and not rushed to kill the cats, maybe there is another approach. Some of the time the “problem” is with the livestock owners. Since these people didn’t directly contact the state and have the cats removed, I’m assuming they have a really small operations…? Or maybe the livestock are just for “fun” or pets…? If that’s the case, then they may be able to change their behaviors and save their livestocks’ and some cougars’ lives as well as some hassle on their part. Do they put the animals in a barn at night? Do they let them free range? Sounds like a female cougar with kittens, how old are the kittens? Was it them just trying to learn how to kill?

I worked on a cougar study in southern CA and we had a subadult tom cougar trapped and killed by the state. He had eaten a couple goats from someone’s yard (pet animals, not a big operation). The people hadn’t been putting their animals in an enclosure at night (while living in known cougar habitat). This young male had managed to disperse across 3 major interstates, turned around at the border of Mexico, seen the pacific ocean, and more; he was trying to establish a territory and picked off some easy prey. Like us, without knowing a territory its hard to secure food. possibly, (and most likely) he would not have become a livestock-killer, but merely kept himself going until he could regularly kill deer.

I tell this story because its often our own ignorance that puts predators in the position of been killed. So maybe some discussions with the people could change their behaviors/mind. If the cats present a real problem/danger then they should be removed quickly and efficiently.

IMO,

preston

[Ptaylor]

in reply to: Good luck! #35501

Yep same to all, Good Luck! And enjoy every breath-taking minute of it.

[Author]

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