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The Trouble With Bears
Many people have only seen bears in the zoo. Often they are
seen while diving, on the side of the highway.
I have had much more personal interactions with bears. Most of my life, I have lived in rural areas.
So opportunities for bear sightings, occur quite easily.
I saw bears frequently while working at Mica Creek, 100 miles north of the Town of Revelstoke, B.C. Canada.
One of my jobs there was to live trap bears.
When ever there was a bear problem I would set up a
bear trap. Problems occurred at campgrounds, kitchen garbage collection facilities, and staff housing areas.
Bears are attracted to the smell of food.
So garbage collection areas are where the bears often make a mess. This can turn into a very dangerous situation if someone stumbles into a bear eating at night. The live bear trap enclosure was a huge highway culvert.
It was bolted down onto a wheeled trailer, with a bumper hitch in front. A thick wire mesh, was welded to one end of the culvert. At the other end the culvert was a spring loaded door latch assembly. A wire trigger line, extended to the middle of the cage roof. At the end of the line there was a loop to hold the bait. The bait hung down,
into the culvert. The bait was usually old scraps of meat, that would smell good to the bears. The trap would be transported to an area where a bear had been causing problems. The latch on the trap door was opened, which set the trap. Bacon or sausages were attached to the wire loop trigger.
Bears typically check out the trap at night.
They are most active then.
By eating the bait inside the trap, the wire trigger was pulled, releasing the door latch.
The door would then slam shut, trapping the bear.
The trap was checked every morning. If a bear was inside it would be relocated.
It would be taken far away from where people lived. Releasing the bear from the trap was exciting.
The trap would be positioned so that the end with the door, was facing the route the bear would take, to enter the forest. I would take a medium size axe with me.
To release the bear, I would climb over the trailer
wheels, to mount the culvert. While sitting on top of the culvert, I would reach forward to the latch handle.
The latch would be released. The trap door was swung open and held ajar to let the bear exit. Usually the bear would take a minute or two to look out the open door, and determine if it was safe to leave. Then the bear
would scamper out of the trap and make a bee line for the edge of the forest. At the tree line, the bears always turn around to check for someone following them. Then it would disappear into the forest. The process of releasing the bears was an adrenaline rush. There was at least the expectation of danger. Thus the axe I carried with me.
In the bears' favor, they never turned around to harass, or attack me while being released. Their only interest was getting out of the trap, to freedom.
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May, 2012
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