A Romantic Bear Story
Bears weren't a part of my childhood. In fact I never saw one until I was in my upper teens. But I remember going with my dad as a youngster to the local college to hear Gary Alt speak and show slides about the bear research that he was doing. Gary was Pennsylvania's bear biologist at the time. I remember it being a fun evening with the slides and the story telling that went along with each slide. I especially liked the stories of how Gary and his crew would crawl into the dens and dart the sows, especially when the sows weren't exactly hibernating. Once the sow was sleeping they would bring her out of the den, weigh and do a health check on her, and then tag the cubs. I often thought it would be a great career but never followed the path that would get me there. And so I've never had the opportunity to be a part of finding a bear den and doing all of those fun things that I remembered Gary had talked about.
It's not that I never tried. I had asked the DNR in the past if they ever take people along to observe or carry things for them. Their answer was that they only do a handful of these each year and that there are thousands of people that would love to go along, and it's not necessarily something they can accurately plan in advance and so to answer my question, no, they don't take people along just for fun.
It totally made sense to me. I just figured that it was something that I would never get to do but it couldn't hurt to ask.
Sometimes, because of my love for nature and the outdoors, I kick myself for not following the path of being some sort of wildlife biologist or something in the outdoor field. But I enjoy doing what I do to make a living and I still get out of doors a good bit. And since being outside is not my actual job, I probably enjoy being out there even more than I would if it was something that I had to do to make a living.
We do live in a beautiful place with literally thousands of acres of state land around our home. On top of that, it's in the mountains and definitely bear country. We have a lot of bears around our home and it's not exactly a rare thing to see one. They can be a pain sometimes. We have to be careful with our trash and make sure that it stays in the garage. We don't feed the birds, except in the winter. I think that they must be able to smell bird seed from miles away and will come running. But for the most part we like having them around. They are fun to hunt and fun to see, especially if they stay wild like they are meant to be.
When the bear population was first being re-established, people were fairly careless with trash and so the bears pretty much learned to find food around people. There was a slaughter shop out in the country just across the PA line that often had bears lurking around and if you went and sat there you would often see one heading into the clearing to get some scraps.
And so that's where I took Jenelle on one of our first dates. It was late in the evening and as we sat and waited, I'm pretty sure she was thinking, "what kind of guy just duped me into sitting out here in the middle of nowhere waiting to see a bear?" But lucky for me, a bear did come along and even though it was just a glimpse, I'm pretty sure that seeing that bear made a pretty big impression on my Iowa girl. And I'm pretty sure that impression was instrumental in her falling in love with me way back when. Since then, we've seen bears frequently on our out and abouts, in our yard or several times on our deck. For the most part though, our dog Koda keeps them away. She actually has a fiercer bark designated just for them and I can tell when there's a bear close by.
They say that all is well that ends well, and over the last several weeks my dream of getting in on a little bear den research came true.
One evening, about two weeks ago, I had about an hour of time to fill and thought that I would get out in the woods. An hour in the woods, at least where I usually like to go, really isn't enough time. And so I jumped into my truck and drove a short piece to some state ground that was right by the road. My hope was to get some exercise, fresh air, and maybe find a shed antler. It was plenty steep where I was and as I headed around the hillside I heard a soft, almost purring sound above me. Turkeys? Maybe it was frogs? Sometimes when there's a hot day in the spring, the frogs will go into a breeding and a noise making frenzy. But there was still snow in spots and there were no pools of water on the side of the hill. Couldn't be frogs! Had to be turkeys! As I eased up the bank the noise that was above me was now off to the side of me and above me at about eye level and coming from under a fallen clump of trees. Maybe it was a family of coons coming out for the evening? As my eyes adjusted, I could see the coarse hair of a bear lying there and it didn't take long to assume the noise was coming from some nursing cubs. As I was already closer than I probably should have been, I quietly eased out of there and continued on my way, excited over being so close to a den of bears. I didn't find any sheds but when I got back to the truck I texted my buddy Nate and he sent me the number of one of the guys that helps with bear research.
Nick the Bear Guy, at least that's the name in my phone contacts, turned out to be a super nice guy! I took him in and showed him the den. They were just wrapping up their spring bear research but he talked to his team and they decided to add another bear to their list. After arranging easier access across some private ground and making all of the arrangements, he invited the landowners and Jenelle and the kids and I along on the adventure. After tranquilizing the sow, they brought the cubs out for us to hold while they did the health check on the sow.
The cubs were the cutest and fuzziest little things you could imagine. The two little males, mostly paws and claws, had everyone oogling and googling over them. The one little guy just loved my beard and wanted to hug me and stick his nose into my beard and under my chin.
After checking the sow and tagging each cub and then rubbing Vicks vapo-rub into the sow's nose so that she wouldn't smell the human odor when she awoke, everything was put back into place like we found it and left with the cubs suckling on their mother.
And that was our Spring adventure. We got to do something that I never thought we'd do! The DNR got some data for their research. I loved every aspect of the adventure and it was fun to meet and talk with the bear team. The kids absolutely loved the cubs! And Jenelle, well, judging from her laughing eyes and beaming face, I'm pretty sure that she fell in love with me all over again!
