Me and
Pete went out to look for a blackie, plus scout some country, June 13th.
We saw a couple of tan colored timber wolves, that had been feeding on a moose kill. We decided to take a seat to see if the wolves would return. We had been sitting there about 15-20 mins and then out of the timber comes a black bear, about 120 yds behind us...
We initially figured he was looking for the moose remains, but he ignored those goodies. This bear was running back and forth scent trailing, I've seen whitetails in the rut exhibit this exact behavior. Clearly it was scent trailing a sow. It was pretty neat to see.
Check the pics. The bear came out and was nose to the ground the whole time (well except maybe in these pics). He crossed the trail back and forth and was busily working the ground sniffing all around, before disappearing.
Amazing!!
We figured it was about a 5 1/2' bear.
After we saw that young boar, we continued on and found this rut pit.
I have no doubt this was made by a black bear, based on the sign, plus the fact that they are in breeding season. I have never heard of bears doing this so I would like any input from the seasoned bear hunters.
If you look at the pic closely, you can see the imprints of the elbows of the animal that made this. In the middle is the clear impression where the bear reached in and took one swipe out of the center. You can see the claw marks very clearly; I hope my picture shows them.
The cutline, where we found this was a bear "highway", with tons of recent tracks. The rut pit was absolutely fresh.
Pete pointing at the "rut pit".
