This Doesn't help....Wounded Bear dies in front yard

[MTH]

 

VERNON -- The sow came out of the woods and fell, dead, an arrow wound in the side.

"It happened sometime overnight," said David Kellish as he stood behind his house early Wednesday afternoon, the third day of the state's archery hunting season, scant yards from the dead bear.

"I'm sure it wasn't here last night," he said.There was no blood on the ground or on the path that leads to the section of the Wallkill River National Wildlife Refuge that adjoins Kellish's Lake Pochung Road property.

"I called (the state Division of Fish and Wildlife) but haven't heard back," he said about 1 p.m. He said he also called Vernon Police and the local animal control officer, who, Kellish said, told him to leave the carcass there because "the hunter will probably come to get it."

 

Later in the afternoon, his wife, Pat Kellish, said conservation officers and a biologist from the state came about 4 p.m. and took the bear away. Without an apparent blood trail to follow, only the most expert of hunter/trackers would have been able to follow the dying animal.

 

According to state wildlife officials who were queried on opening day of the archery season about bow hunting leading to more wounding of bears, there is little anecdotal evidence of what the wounding and non-recovery rate is in New Jersey and no formal studies have been done.

On Wednesday, department spokesman Larry Hajna said this bear dying in the backyard was the first such instance he had heard about. There is no requirement in New Jersey for hunters to report every shot taken or even if an animal was wounded. On some hunting blogs, hunters are cautioned about telling tall tales about shots taken and "the one that got away." Angi Metler, executive director of the Animal Protective League of New Jersey, an anti-hunting group, claimed that archery hunts "are notorious. There's over 50 percent wounding rate."

 

She cited as one of her sources safebackyards.com, a blog that contains a link to a study done in the 1980s about deer hunting in Texas, reflecting the 50 percent wounding rate. A second reference (www.marylandqdma.com/files/Download/Pedersen-31-34.pdf) is to a study done on a U.S. Navy base in Maryland in which the average "recovery" rate -- a deer hit and recovered within 24 hours -- was close to 90 percent. The study was authored in 2008 by people associated with the Navy base, where archery hunts in a controlled area were carefully monitored for nearly two decades, right down to the number of shots taken at deer. "We believed improvements in bows, sights, arrows, and broadheads together have helped the average bowhunter achieve better and more consistent shooting performance," the authors noted, referring to the earlier studies of 50 percent wounding rates. They added Maryland had also increased its standards for testing to obtain archery permits.Those studies were done on wounding rates of deer, not bear.

 

On Monday, a small sampling of hunters who had been successful with bow this year and with shotgun in previous New Jersey hunts, agreed that archery seemed to be a better method of taking a bear. John Capozzoli of Stillwater, who recorded the first bear killed on Monday's opening day, said the bear was hit with one shot, ran 20 yards and fell. "It was a good, clear shot," he said, noting that the arrow's broadheads are a lot bigger than a shotgun slug and "this one died a lot faster," than the bear he killed last year with a shotgun. He also noted that archery requires being a lot closer to a bear before taking a shot, a point that brought agreement from Garrett Kazar and Dean Beers, owners of separate sporting goods stores in Sussex County. "Ethical is 20 yards," Beers said last week as he talked about preparations his customers were making in anticipation of the October segment of this year's bear hunt. Kazar noted hunters were upgrading to heavier broadheads with would provide a more lethal strike.

 

Larry Herrighty, assistant director of the Division of Fish and Wildlife, said the state does not have any statistics on wounding rates and putting out a number like 50 percent "is very misguided." He said that in the 2014-15 deer hunting season, a report filed with the division said there were 120 requests from hunters for the services of tracking dogs to help find a wounded deer. Of those, the trackers went out 60 times and found 55 percent of the wounded animals. In the previous deer season (2013-14), the dogs found 44.5 percent of the deer which they went to find. The services of the trackers is made available on the United Bowhunters website and are free. There's a hitch, however. Current state law makes it illegal to use a dog to "hunt for, track, search for, seek, capture or kill a wild deer." However, the division does allow a limited number of people provide the service for tracking wounded deer, and bear, with specially trained dogs as part of a research project. Darren Doran, of Middlesex County, is one of 13 people listed on the permit and has three dogs trained to find game.

His bear-trained dog is Theo, a 4-year-old wire-haired dachshund, bred and trained in upstate New York, where Doran is also a licensed tracker. "They are bred to do this," he said of the smallish breed, which he called "fearless." Using dogs to track wounded animals is common in Germany, where the breed originated. Some dogs, he said, are naturally afraid of bears while others are thrilled to track them.

 

Admitting, "I'm not a dog, so I'm not sure," he said it appears the dogs zero in on the different kind of scent a wounded and dying animal gives off. "A wolf surveying a herd of caribou doesn't pick out one by sight," he said. "They use their sense of smell to know which are the dying, sick animals. Then they zero in." There is no charge for the service of the tracking dogs in New Jersey, although Doran said he is allowed to accept a donation for gasoline. When a hunter calls for assistance, the trackers fill out a form and interview the hunter about the circumstances of the shot, especially the placement of the shot in a vital area.

 

"Where did you hit it? Do you have the arrow? How much blood did you find? That's information we need," he explained. If the team accepts the mission, they meet with the hunter where the shooting occurred and "put (the dog) on the scent of the proper animal."

Once on that scent, Theo is of one purpose. He won't trail off after another deer, or try to chase a rabbit or squirrel. Theo, and the other dogs, are on a leash while tracking and under control of the handler. Doran said he's tracked five bears in New Jersey and found a couple of them.

He's also done several tracking missions in New York, where state law allows tracking wounded animals. There is a bill pending in the New Jersey Legislature (A1616 and S2400) that would allow tracking wounded deer.

In the last session, a similar bill died in the Assembly's Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee without a vote. Assemblyman Parker Space, R-24th District, whose district is entirely within the bear hunting area of New Jersey, said he would talk to his fellow committee members today and would mention the bill. "If we can use tracking for finding them (wounded animals), I'm for it, 100 percent," Space said. "That's a resource going to waste if you don't find it." Doran, who said he is not a bear hunter himself, said Theo is not always successful, noting they tracked a couple of bears for more than a mile without coming on a dead animal. "It's very likely, those animals survived, the shots were non-lethal," he said.

 

He said hunters with whom he has worked are anxious to find the animal they believe they shot. And what about Theo, the bear-finding dachshund? "Well, he's a tracker, not a hunter, but he still gets very excited when he finds the bear," Doran said

 

.http://www.njherald.com/20161013/wounded-bear-found-dead-in-vernon-yard-on-3rd-hunt-day#

 

[Northjerseyoutdoorsman]

Not good at all

[Pathman]

You're right, not good. But this is NJ, I think it's unrealistic to think this will never happen. Any bear/deer that is not perfectly hit has a chance to travel a bit and die on someone's property.

 

If the approval of the bear hunt was based on an incident like this never happening, there wouldn't haVe been a hunt. Let's not make more of it then it actually is. The media will do plenty of that!

[Mixbaghunter]

Not at all but we now stuff happens. We need to find the hunter to find out how far it went from the shot get the hole story.

[Ms Grit]

With many NJ Hunters only having small pieces of property to hunt, how could we not expect an animal to run and expire on someone else's property.  It is an unfortunate reality that some of the animals shot will not expire within 40-60 yards of being shot.  It is also unfortunate that the hunter was not able to track and recover this bear, but the fact is that the bear was killed and not wounded. Hopefully the hunter will contact the Division and be able to claim his quarry. Another thought is that out of 368 bears harvested so far, 1 expired in an "unexpected" spot. That's a pretty low percentage.

Edited October 13, 2016 by Ms Grit

[MTH]

Well stated Robin....but of course the Anti's will claim (without evidence) that the percentage is much higher

[gregtpal]

It is inevitable that it will happen again in NJ, hopefully not very often.  Imagine if somone's bear runs off & dies in Sue Kehoe's backyard.  

[Gruntinbuck]

It happens frequently animals dying on other people's property. When I was a kid we hunted a small backyard sanctuary in hunterdon county. Shot a deer it died in the neighbors flower bed. It's the nature of the beast. We live and hunt in close quarters.

[Thrudheim]

The comments are typical...

[bigwuhead]

What I find very interesting about this is they mention that the property has a path that leads to the Wallkill River National Wildlife Refuge... They are NOT OPEN to bear hunting this week.  They make it sound like they believe that's where it came from, well then we've got a poacher here not a hunter.

[Zipper]

Let's wait to see what the investigation reveals. Sounds fishy to me. Fits the anti narrative too closely.

[MTH]

What I find very interesting about this is they mention that the property has a path that leads to the Wallkill River National Wildlife Refuge... They are NOT OPEN to bear hunting this week.  They make it sound like they believe that's where it came from, well then we've got a poacher here not a hunter.

I drove up 565 yesterday evening and saw quite a few trucks parked along the road bordering the Refuge....I was thinking the same thing.....Though deer season is open, it's closed for bear, and the number of vehicles leads me to believe that not everyone was out for deer....But I could just be paranoid. LOL

[Njkoren]

I thought the article did a good job explaining the success rates of the Maryland study. But someone who reads this looking for something wrong probably wouldn't get past the image of a dead bear on the lawn.

[MS22]

I drove up 565 yesterday evening and saw quite a few trucks parked along the road bordering the Refuge....I was thinking the same thing.....Though deer season is open, it's closed for bear, and the number of vehicles leads me to believe that not everyone was out for deer....But I could just be paranoid. LOL

This was the first thing that came to mind as well

[Williemo]

Focusing on just the article, I think it brings a "matter of fact" personality to the whole program (as much as I hate the idea of hunts being "management"). If the public understands there is a need for the hunt and available resources to ensure it is quick, clean and "managed"; opinions about these hunts may recede to the point that people understand they are not only necessary, but respectable.