What wakes a bear up?

[byron_bear]

  The days of autumn have floated by and winter at present is mild where I am.  I've been content with the progress made through the last year.  The effects of my efforts have provided sanctuary for 8 former performing bears and have seen 12 orphan bear cubs rehabilitated and now they are in hibernation.   I doubt that I would much have stirred,

Comments

Machismo

[byron_bear]

That is a question which I can not answer. That the state has even considered hunting bears with a population less than the seed population required by Arkansas back in 1958 when it determined to re-introduce bears into the Kiamichi and Ozark Mountains (there were no bears left in a state which prided itself on having bears!). If that were a guideline then this state should not even consider hunting bears for another twenty years at least.

The efforts made in the late fifties on behalf of the environment seem more rational than those being made fifty years later. That effort for bears was considered and hailed as a great conservation achievement of the time. Since then, black bear populations in Arkansas have reached an official census of 3500 bears.

I'm not much in the mindset that would consider "trophy hunting" which a bear hunt really is. It relates to some sort of 'machismo' of no redeeming worth that I can fathom. I am hoping that the position I take and the input of those others who also attend the public hearings will be heard and actioned upon by the Department of Wildlife Conservation. Without this provision being made most certainly more than the quota set by the Wildlife Research Unit will be taken and cubs will die which could have entered into the population and continued to show growth. Most certainly allowing the taking of mothers with cubs alongside, will seriously harm the dynamics of a re-colonizing population.

If you've watched bears, then you know that bears amble along at a slow rate and shooting a bear is about as challenging as shooting a cow. Were it up to me I would restrict the hunt to those who would attack the bear mano y mano with a knife as a weapon. That process might excise the machismo plumb out of someone.

I am hoping that it is only an oversight of those persons in the position to set rules regarding a hunt and that my input will be grasped. I have been unable to convince them that the time is not yet come for hunting bears within the state. I can do my best to stand up and speak out and that I shall do.

Re: Machismo

[moontrail]

I don't think an animal needs to be hunted unless it's for food.

Re: Machismo

[byron_bear]

I agree with you. My difficulty is that I must also have the hunter in mind if I am going to actually influence the hunters. I have been very active trying to influence this and the states which surround me NOT to hunt bears. Now, it is no longer a question of whether Oklahoma will hunt bears, the hunt is slated for October during deer season.
I believe most people would agree with you, hunting shouldn't take place except where food is honestly an issue. With bears there will be very few people who would want to eat bear meat. The reasons mostly cited are greasiness of the meat and the need to over cook the meat for it to be safely consumed.

The Hunters for Hunger program in Alaska had recently to exclude hunters from donating the meat of hunted bears as several poor people who had been eating bear, died as result of one of the parasites often found in bears. There are 30 parasites on and in bears which, to my mind, excludes bears as a source of food for a hunter.

I don't hunt, I do browse for wild plants, tubers, berries and nuts but those don't require the death of the plant in order to satisfy my appetite. Like all black bears, I'm not much of a meat eater.

Re: Machismo

[moontrail]

Wow, I didn't know about the parasite issue with bears.

trichinosis

[byron_bear]

Yes indeed! In the US for instance, from 1982 to 1986 there were 69 known cases of Trichinosis, 42 of those diagnosed with this parasite were from eating bear meat, three of those people died. The most common of the two deadly parasites is Trichinella Spiralus which is mostly thought of as coming from wild pigs but the parasite can live in the muscles of any large animal (called a blastocyst), including man, for some reason bears do not seem to show signs of illness from trichinosis, while people become ill quite quickly and WILL die if untreated. The other parasite is less known but just as deadly to humans like a nematode it is a trematode and is called Prouterina wescotti. Bears can have pin worms, round worms, hook worm, tape worms, a good list, as I mentioned 30 parasites are known, none of which are very savory.

It must also be kept in mind that the liver of a bear should never be eaten as it will have large quantities of Vitamin A in the tissue. Oil based vitamins, as most people are aware, can be quite deadly at high concentrations.

Re: trichinosis

[moontrail]

So with all of these parasites, do bears tend to often have health issues, or do they just have a lot of resilience to them? I know birds carry parasites and yet they chirp happily along.

Re: trichinosis

[byron_bear]

Interestingly, bears do not seem to be much affected by these parasites. The blastocysts seem confined to the striated muscles while in man, trichinosis migrates from the intestines into the blood stream forming blastocysts even in smooth muscles with death often occurring when they have invaded the heart muscles (a smooth muscle group).

There are no definitive studies which would answer this question but most scientists think they may also occasionally kill bears, despite evidence to the contrary. In studies of mortality of bears, I have not found instances where trichinoisis has been cited as a cause of death to a bear.

I would speculate that the systems which allow a bear to cleanse poisons within it's blood, normally removed by the kidneys in those animals which hibernate (true hibernators, unlike bears, must wake every few days to urinate and thus prevent toxins from becoming lethal) bears, unique among all animals, can manufacture proteins from these toxins and need not waken at all through hibernation, unless they feel inclined to do so.

Bears also do not suffer bone loss from disuse of muscles, a fact which has caused NASA to study bears. To date, no one who has studied this phenomena have found an answer which might translate to human applications.