Bait stations

Bait Station Sab

By Cody ..Yack.. Ursine

You really want to save the bears? Don't waste time protesting in front of the TV cameras at the weigh-station on opening day. Leave that for the articulate and knowledgeable above-ground leaders of our movement. Other than showing new people the sickening horror of a murdered black bear being strung up, weighed in and having one of his or her teeth pulled out with a pair of pliers, the shadow activist has no business anywhere near the place.

People of conscience only have to visit a weigh-station once in their lives to ..catch the rage... The next step for some is to carefully start FSU for the bear hunters in their communities.

Lots of opportunities are there for the creative activist. If you want to stay out of the woods (and jail.) file a FOIA with the state requesting the name and address of every hunter who gets a tag or who weighs in a bear this year. This should be public information. Identify the bear killers and begin a polite, SHACesque home visit and public education protest campaign.

Or, recruit lawyers to fight the hunt in court. Write letters to the editor or lobby to enact legislation to ban bear baiting in the state. Do whatever you can.

If, however, you want to learn about people who trek into the wilderness for something fun, effective, probably illegal and immensely rewarding, read on.

If we are to protect the black bears in our communities, we must learn everything we can about them. We must be familiar with their habitat to protect them. We must roam and learn the deep woods.

It is equally important to learn everything we can about black bear hunters. Having a basic understanding of the bear hunter..s core killing strategies of scouting, baiting, stalking and ambushing has been shown to greatly increase a sab campaign..s effectiveness.

A hunt sab is not easy work. It is not particularly glamorous or exciting. It is cold, wet, muddy and enormously fun. Such activity is probably in violation of a number of state Hunter Harassment Statutes. (See, for example, New Jersey..s N.J.S.A. §§ 23:7A-1, 23:7A-2.)

A hunt sab can be dangerous in dozens of ways. We don..t recommend it. Most of all, the effort requires a level of fitness, patience and determination few city dwellers seem to possess. Although we certainly are not suggesting anyone commit the slightest illegality, this article is intended to provide the dedicated and the curious with a basic understanding of what some woodsy folks across the country are doing to FSU for the sick and twisted killers of bears.


SCOUTING

A protest at the weigh station is a punch in the heart. As many front-line
activists have witnessed time and again, the hunters seem to find and murder a
bear within hours of the first day of opening season. How do they do that?

First of all, it is inaccurate to say these people are ..hunting.. anything.
To hunt implies you are looking for something. A ..successful.. bear
killer is actually more of an assassin than a hunter.

The key strategy to a successful sab is understanding that the ..hunter..
already knows exactly where the bears are well before opening day.

Bear hunters are violent outdoorsmen. They hike the trails, fish the streams
and generally hunt other ..game.. in the woods almost year-round. These
killers are successful in slaughtering bears because they stalk them for
months in advance.

A bear murderer understands his target bear..s habits and habitat. By
opening day of the bear season, the killer already knows exactly where his
victim sleeps, eats and dens up. Although the ..legal.. hunting season is
brief, the murderer has actually hunted bears in the area for months and in
many cases years. He scouts through the deepest sections of the remote woods,
carefully noting bear ..sign.. - scrapes, digs, claw marks, food sources and
scat (droppings.) Experienced bear hunters often log this information on a
map or in a small notebook.

Lately, hunters have been observed scouting with GPS devices; marking
..waypoints.. everywhere they find sign or ..spore.. of a bear. There are
even some who enter all of this collected data into computer spread-sheets and
topo maps to keep track of the bears they wish to kill. Other hunters are
known to possess receivers that can pick up bear tracking-collar
transmissions. They use these illegal devices to get a general sense of where
bear habitat is in a given region.

The bear killer dreams of murdering a large male bear. He is looking for a
..trophy.. not a meal. The most valuable sign for the bear hunter to find
is the large, deep claw-scratches a boar (male) often makes on a tree. This
sign identifies the edges or path of a boar..s territory and can tell the
hunter his size, weight and age.

Here is an example of a two-year-old tree scratch made by a black bear.

http://www.bear-tracker.com/beartree.jpg


Bears are very social animals. Claw-scratchings often indicate a number of
bears have left their marks on the same tree. This seems to be some sort of
ursine communication method. Wildlife biologists believe black bears also
leave scent markings at these scratches that can tell fellow bears what foods
are being consumed and who the largest and most dominant bear is in the area.


COUNTERMEASURES .. The hunter..s pre-season scouting is what makes his trip
to the woods so short on opening day. The truth is, if activists only attempt
to sab the hunt during the brief season, they will likely fail to save a
single bear. If we truly wish to impede the killing of bears in our woods,
some of us must be in those woods year-round.

We need to know where the bears are in order to protect them. We need to be
better bear scouts than the hunters and that means we need to spend a great
deal of time off the trails, away from the campsites and far back into the
deep woods.

There are said to be more than one million black bears in North America. Study
their tracks, signs and habits in books but then put on your boots and get out
there. Learn and know the terrain and you will find bears. They will usually
be found in the deepest, darkest most inhospitable parts of a forest or state
park. Finding their dens and food sources, mapping their locations and
quietly ..patrolling.. these areas for evidence of bear hunters and their
bait stations are the keys to a successful sab.


BAITING

Once the hunter has scouted the area and found signs of bear habitat, he will
usually set up a series of ..bait stations... These are ambush sites
selected by the hunter where he can begin to basically ..train.. his target
bears to stop by for a free meal. The bear killer sets up a bait station
where he is able to comfortably conceal himself close-by to ambush and murder
the bear while he is eating.

Finding food occupies just about every waking moment in the life of a bear.
Male black bears are usually run off by their mothers in the second or third
year of life. They begin foraging for food outside of the mother..s
territory and they seem to remember every location where they have ever
successfully found something to eat. Bears are said to be able to store
hundreds of ..food images.. in their brains. If they find something tasty at
a location just once, they will be back.

The bear..s biological memory adaptation is, of course, why humans feel a
need to murder them. When wasteful suburbanites leave their trash out for a
bear to find, it becomes a permanent food image for that particular bear for
the rest of his or her life. The same rule applies when a bear encounters
horse or companion animal food, a well-stocked bird feeder, a greasy barbecue
grill or a hunter..s bait station.

The hunter exploits the fact that the bear spends most of his day looking for
food. The way the hunter is able to ambush and murder black bears is by
regularly feeding them at a very cleverly designed and located bait station.
Food left in a container at the bait station may include bacon, donuts, fryer
grease, honey or animal carcasses. A bear hunter will often put something
heavy over the top of the food container at his bait station to insure that
raccoons and smaller mammals don..t take the food he has left for the bears.

Bears have a tremendous sense of smell. Wildlife biologists claim a black bear
can detect and track a food scent from more than three miles away.

Hunters have a variety of commercial ..scent products.. available to lure
bears to their bait stations. One smells like ice cream. Others smell like
bacon, blueberry..s or jelly donuts. State wildlife biologists in New
Jersey have assisted the companies that manufacture these scents. The
biologists test the various formulas on bears in the field. One vendor in
this business can be found at:

http://www.bearscents.com/SCENTS.html


For those in the movement who focus on legislative remedies, an aggressive
campaign to halt bating may be successful if these types of companies were
exposed to public scrutiny. The state wildlife ..experts.. would have
difficulty claiming they are trying to ..thin.. the black bear population
from encroaching on suburbia if the public were to learn their own biologists
assist the hunting industry in testing scents like bacon and ..hickory smoke
concentrate.. on wild bears.

In New Jersey, most of the bears killed on opening day are murdered at or near
a bait station. The law says that no bear can be shot within 100 yards of a
bait station.

http://www.state.nj.us/dep/fgw/pdf/2005/dighnt55-69.pdf


The truth is, almost all bears killed each season are in fact shot coming or
going to one of these ambush sites. An informative and deeply disturbing
article about how the black bear hunter..s bait station is set up and managed
can be found here:

http://www.bowhunting.net/billjones/black.htm..top



COUNTERMEASURES:

Disrupting the baiting of bears is one of the simplest, safest and most
effective sab methods available. Again, please refrain from actually engaging
in any of the tactics mentioned below.

The black bear forages for a living. He is naturally curious and will take
great risks to find fresh, pungent food. He stores food images for life. But
he has no way to distinguish between grubs under a log, acorns under an oak
tree, garbage at a dump site or food at a bait station. Shadow activists try
to help the bear with this dilemma.

Activists sab the hunt by locating and ..compromising.. the bait stations.
Through good scouting, they will invariably find bear habitat and bait
stations in the woods. There will be dozens if not hundreds of bait stations
set up in the months and weeks prior to the opening day of bear season.
According to one anonymous activist, ..Every bait station we drag out of the
woods is one less bear a hunter will be able to murder on opening day...

It is not illegal to hike through the forest looking for bait stations as long
as you leave them alone. If you are in good physical health and pay attention
to the wind, you can usually smell a bait station from a good distance away.
If you detect the odor of honey cooking, however, make note of the exact area
but leave immediately. Hunters use small stoves to cook honey and other food
items to lure bears to their bait stations. If you detect anything cooking
the hunter is probably in the area.

There will be other obvious signs of human activity close by a bait station;
including tree stands, hides and fresh trails. The stand or hide is often
slightly above and downwind from the bait station. Saplings and tree limbs
may be freshly cut or bent to create a ..shooting lane.. between the bait
station and the hide. Some hunters will also leave items of unwashed and
sweaty clothing near their stands and hides to get the bears accustomed to
their scent.

Understanding the ..mechanics of the murder.. can help in stopping it. The
killer knows he will ultimately have to drag the bear..s body out of the
woods. He will often set up a cluster of bait stations close by a logging
trail or back road so he can conveniently ..service.. each station with
fresh food and eventually transport his ..trophy.. out of the forest with
out much trouble.

Scout the woods in the late autumn along the back roads and on the logging and
ATV trails and you will find fresh paths to these well-hidden ambush sites.
In the weeks just before opening season, scouting in the middle of the day,
during a weekday seems to be safest. Hunters are at work and foraging black
bears seem to be most active early and late in the day.

Wealthy white suburbanite bear hunters are the laziest and often the easiest
to compromise. On weekends, activists have had great luck driving along the
back roads and logging trails and marking on a map where they have observed
pick-up trucks and SUV..s parked unattended along the side the road. They
return in the middle of the week to that same location and follow the fresh
boot tracks into the woods; eventually locating the bait stations.

Bears live and forage in very remote sections of the woods. They prefer steep
grades and heavy brush. Pay close attention to the man-made trails. Be
prepared to hike, climb and crawl to the bait station. Take your time and be
hyper observant. Things to look for are small, reflective tacks and
fluorescent strips placed at eye-level along the trail. Lazy hunters hate to
waste time stumbling to their bait stations in the dark and they will often
mark their paths with these flashlight reflecting tacks and strips. Here are
a few examples:

http://www.deerhuntinggear.net/Trail_Marker.htm

http://www.cascade-ammo.com/catalog.php?type=product&id=26096

http://www.cascade-ammo.com/catalog.php?type=product&id=36057

If one is particularly skilled in the deep woods, ..rerouting.. these
markers along a particularly inhospitable path is said to be a source of
amusement. Otherwise, activists simply remove and bury them.

Always make certain that you approach a suspected bait station slowly and
cautiously. The goal is to avoid both the hunters and the bears. Male black
bears have a very distinctive musky scent that is unforgettable but difficult
to describe. The odor is comparable to a skunk in texture and pungency but not
as acrid. As mentioned above, the smell of anything cooking is a danger sign
that a bear hunter is in the area.

One notorious activist group removes every bait station they find. Sometimes
a scout locates multiple bait stations in an area and others make special
arrangements to compromise them all on one trip. This is an inherently risky
activity. In some cases it may be in fact be illegal. Again, we strongly
advise against this sort of thing. It is said that radios and other
communications equipment, over-watch teams and good planning are required for
this immensely rewarding task.

Removing bait station feeding containers often requires a crowbar or bolt
cutters because some hunters chain and stake the container they use for
holding the bait. If there is time, activists will rake and remove the
surface dirt where the bait station was found. Some hunters pour grease
around their bait station container so the bear leaves a trail from the bait
station back to the woods. Other bears will then follow the scent trail back
to the bait station.

Activists spray various organic cleaning products, hot pepper powders, human
urine and other scents throughout the area and along every approach trail to
further compromise the bait station.

A cleaned out Elmer..s Glue bottle is said to make an excellent applicator
for these liquid sprays. Several bottles can fit flat in the pocket of a pair
of cargo pants. Anything with a pungent, non-food scent that is safe for the
environment but indicative of humans seems to be effective at spooking bears.


One strategy that some are experimenting with may hold some promise and
appears to be perfectly legal. Take your companion dogs with you when you
are out scouting for bear sign. Male pups in particular tend to mark places
where wildlife has marked previously. Bears that forage suburban areas are
usually aware of and afraid of dogs. In many parts of the country, dogs are
also used to hunt bears. We still don..t know for sure, but dogs may be able
to permanently ..close.. a bear bait station with a single spray.

Along with removing every bit of the bait station, some activists also seize
tree stands, destroy hides and use other ..techniques.. to ensure the hunter
knows his ambush site has been compromised. Activists generally try to make
it appear that competing hunters are the culprits.

Some of the more aggressive sab folks are said to carry a sharpie and some
fingerprint-free index cards along so they can leave menacing notes for the
hunter. A popular message simply cautions the bear killer that there seems to
be a lot of firearms accidents in the area this time of year. The hunter is
again left with the impression that these notes were written by other hunters
who don..t appreciate his presence. Bear hunters seem to be as territorial
as bears. And rednecks with guns already tend to have a pre-existing
paranoia. When they find their bait stations gone and unfriendly notes posted
in what is left of their hides, they seldom return.

When activists leave the area, they heavily spray the above-mentioned human
scents on the trails at the obvious entry points along the wood line where the
bear hunter..s vehicles were observed. This is very important as the season
looms close. On opening day, the bear hunter wears special scent masking
clothes. If he steps anywhere an activist has recently applied a human scent,
his entire hunt can be compromised.

Activists have recently begun to find tree-mounted infrared-actuated cameras
near bait stations. Hunters evidently put these out to get a snapshot of
whatever animal happens to walk by. Learn to identify these camouflaged
devices and watch out for them. They are called ..game cameras... It is
inappropriate to be surreptitiously photographed vandalizing a bait station by
one of these devices. One activist group is known to confiscate them. Here is
what they look like:

http://www.cabelas.com/products/Ccat20098.jsp


Some sab groups subsidize their efforts by selling appropriated tree stands,
game cameras, etc. These seized items can be sold for cash on eBay, at flea
markets, pawn shops and in the classified sections of most small town
..thrifty nickel.. type papers. Without creating any movement drama we do
not think this is appropriate. Although anyone who is seizing bait stations
is saving bears, the equipment will likely be used to murder animals if it is
sold back into circulation.

The truth is that effective bear hunt sab strategies require more time and
patience than money or material. You know you have to do something to stop
the killing. So what do you want to do?

a.) Dress in a bear costume and hold a protest sign in front of the heartless
freaks that ambush and murder our ancient friends.

b.) Run in the middle of the woods with a boat horn and a whistle on opening
day and get arrested for interfering with the hunt.

c.) Learn the ways of the bear and target bait stations in the deep woods
weeks in advance.

Activists claim the bait station sab is actually safer, more fun and way more
effective at saving bears. Please don..t try it. The risk may be small and
the rewards may be great, but believe me; nothing will create a sense of
accomplishment and euphoria in your affinity group better than compromising a
bait station. Do it just once and you will not be able to stop. One should
therefore avoid this activity at all costs.

This page is currently being researched and will updated soon

Wayne Carlton On Calling Bears--Part II
Wayne Carlton On Calling Bears--Part