Does Anybody Else Name Their Bears?

[Ms Grit]

Last year when I was bear baiting in preparation for the hunt, by now, a larger bear had pushed the smaller one off, so I only had the one bear showing up, so I was targeting a bear, plain and simple, no need to distinguish one from another.

 

Well, this year, none of them have pushed any away yet and I am trying to figure out a pattern for the larger ones, so I have come up with the following . . .

 

Mischief: He is a smaller, approx 150 lb bear, comes in all hours, likes to lay on his back, pull saplings over and play with the leaves.  Also likes to lay on his back and play with the deer bagels with his feet.  Also sleeps on the deer bait during the day when the larger bears aren't around.

 

Garth: I originally thought he was the approx 400 lb bear from last year.  Belly hangs to within about 6 inches from the ground.  Fairly short from snout to tail though. Pretty much has the same MO as the bear from last year of hitting the bait barrel just at dusk and spends most of the night there, but now also hits up the deer spot of corn and bagels about 2 hours after I have been there, rolls in the corn and then heads to the barrel as soon as it gets dark.

 

SMP (Shit My Pants): Considerably larger and longer than Garth.  Only passes through once every 10 days or so, but OMG what a bruin !!!

 

One Too Many: Just noticed him recently.  Somewhere along the same size as Garth, but no hanging belly.  A solid bear but coat looks a little scruffy. When standing at the barrel, the bottom of his chin is approx 6 inches above the barrel.

 

Patches: Larger than Mischief and has a beautiful white crest.

 

Blinged Out Mama (2 ear tags and a radio collar around her neck) and her 3 cubs: Haven't seen her in about 10 days though.

 

With this many bear frequenting the bear bait barrel and the deer bait, I would think that I would see some battle wounds on them, but so far they seem to be getting along with sharing the donuts, bagels and deer corn. I just started a log of who I am getting daytime pictures of and back tracking where they are coming up out of the swamp.  So far I have 2 cameras in the area, but will be setting up 2 more to see if I can farther back track them as I did last year. 

[Bucksnbows]

Yup, I name ours!  We have Bitchy and the Two Boys because she causes us the most grief.  Big Momma and the Triplets (self-explanatory), Scar and the Twins (our 3rd sow with cubs has a long scar on her back and she's the smallest by far of our 3 sows with cubs).  After them, we don't have any other bears I see enough of that stand out as individuals that have earned nicknames yet.  Most years we have one or more with radio collars and/or ear tags, but I haven't seen any bling this year yet even though we have tons of bears.  That actually concerns me since we know the Division handles or used to handle approximately 10% of the bears in the state as I recall.  So if I'm not seeing jewelery, it means our population locally is growing.  And judging by numbers seen alone, that seems very much to be the case.

 

But Robin, I don't have anything near the size of your bears even though we're not hunting all that far apart.  So far, this is our best and he's a bruiser, but not a heavyweight "dumpster diver".  He's both large framed and older, but if he hit the garbage often, he might go over 600 given his frame size.  This guy seems content breeding my sows and eating acorns, grasses, and other natural foods.

Edited October 20, 2014 by Bucksnbows

[Ms Grit]

That's a beautiful bear Brian. I just have to hope that for all my efforts one of the bigger ones sticks around and we have mild temps through 6-Day.

[Palawman30]

I can't bring myself to name animals. I feel like it humanized them.. I just feel like wild animals should remain wild. Naming them reminds me of Disney movies..

I can't watch hunting videos where guys are naming deer. It's rediculous.

Just my own personal opinion on it.

Don't blast me for it...

 

On another note.... I dont have deer or bear scored either...

I have a couple bucks that would score nicely in pope and young and a Boone and cricket sized bear but I just don't feel the need to. I just hunt for my own personal benefit I guess.

My buddy Lou on here couldn't believe it when I told him not a single big buck in my camp has ever been officially scored and never will.

[Bucksnbows]

I can't bring myself to name animals. I feel like it humanized them.. I just feel like wild animals should remain wild. Naming them reminds me of Disney movies..

I can't watch hunting videos where guys are naming deer. It's rediculous.

Just my own personal opinion on it.

Don't blast me for it...

 

 

 

I can respect that, but I don't humanize the animals I name.  Instead, I do it to help others in my camp ID certain deer or bear.  Some years we see an odd looking buck and maybe do a side bet above and beyond our camp pot for largest buck if one of the guys takes that deer.  A few years back it was a buck we called Crab Claw that was old, but only had 3 points on one side (4 on the other), with the rack looking like a giant crab's claw on that side.  Nobody shot him and we never saw him again, but we had a second pot as he would not have been our largest if taken that year.  So many of us had seen that buck during our small game hunts and scouting that he earned a name.  Two years ago I took a small buck off the shooter list here in NJ and we called him Short Bus.  He would stand under everyone's stand for hours it seemed, oblivious to everything around him.  Since his rack was high and tight and he was still young, I didn't want any of my guys to shoot him that year.  He also disappeared after that season or so we think.  Those are some of the reasons we sometimes name certain bucks, does or bears.        

[Ms Grit]

I can't bring myself to name animals. I feel like it humanized them.. I just feel like wild animals should remain wild. Naming them reminds me of Disney movies..

I can't watch hunting videos where guys are naming deer. It's rediculous.

Just my own personal opinion on it.

Don't blast me for it...

 

On another note.... I dont have deer or bear scored either...

I have a couple bucks that would score nicely in pope and young and a Boone and cricket sized bear but I just don't feel the need to. I just hunt for my own personal benefit I guess.

My buddy Lou on here couldn't believe it when I told him not a single big buck in my camp has ever been officially scored and never will.

I also do not feel that I am humanizing them, but rather making it easier to identify them easier than Bear 1, Bear 2, Bear 3 and so on.

On another note, I would never blast or make fun of another hunter for how they choose to handle their hunting, scouting and pursuit of game provided they are following the laws.

I respect your choices as to not have your bucks and bear scored and would hope that by now I would earn reciprocation on my choices as well.

[LittleM]

I don't, but working as a wildlife biologist, precludes me, I think, from naming any animals.

[Palawman30]

Robin

I wouldn't blast anyone for naming animals to identify them. I just prefer not to do it. It's just the way my brothers and I were raised I think. It probably seems silly to some hunters to hear we never score our deer or bear but the animal just means more than a score to us..

I dont care if others do but I don't like the competitive nature that breeds..

my byline says it all...

I would much rather help our less successful hunters score than me...

 

I also think a reason we don't name deer is the land we hunt is so vast we may only see a buck once and that's it..

we don't hunt woodlots or even 1000-2000 acres surrounded by roads and obstacles. The deer pretty much can go where they want and they do.

Just a different hunting style is all.

[Haskell_Hunter]

My wife wouldn't let me name my kids (although my 14-year-old daughter laments that I didn't get to name her Wednesday), so I generally don't name anything else.  I'm not that creative.

[jakesbeard]

Nope never named any bears but I have numbered my beers, 1st beer 2nd beer 3rd beer forsh beer, fish err beer, shiskts beer, another beer bla bla beer and so on. (Does this help?)